RWBY: A Simple Soul
by ThePhengophobicGamer
Summary: A simple (heh) story about teams RWBY, JNPR, CFVY and SSSN. It's not really going to follow the main story, but I may include events that happen in the show. Fun will be had, as well as romance and feels (oh the feels) so buckle your seatbelts and hold onto your butts! (Rated M for later scenes as well as some language)
1. Chapter 1: A Simple Soul

Beacon Academy. Home to many huntsmen and huntresses, all learning to hone their skills to fight the enemy of all mankind; the creatures of Grimm. Beacon is home to a particular group of both huntsmen and huntresses, teams RWBY and JNPR, as well as their friends in teams CVFY and SSSN. This story starts where many do, at the beginning.

* * *

"Oh, Yang! Gross! You've got puke on your shoes!"

The little redhead, who couldn't be older than 16 was yelling at him. No, not him. She's yelling at the tall, blonde one, who seemed pretty pissed that he had upchucked on her shoes.

Jaune ran for a trashcan, and away from these scary looking new students. His luck was exceptionally poor today, as there was none in the main cabin for him to use. He stood by the exit to the ship, hoping there would be something he could use soon, or he would be throwing up on someone else's shoes. He did not have to wait long as the airship finished docking just a few minutes later. He barreled out the door and found the nearest trashcan, and proceeded to camp out at said trashcan for the next few minutes as his lunch (which his mom had made for him) fell into the trashcan.

When he had finished loosing his very tasty lunch, he propped himself up against the wall, growing accustomed to the solid ground again. As he did so, he thought of what was in store for him, now that he was at Beacon Academy. He did not have high hopes as he knew he had no formal training, and could barely hold his own sword.

He quickly checked to make sure that Crocea Mors was still in it's sheath, and a quick feel at his hip confirmed it was still attached. If he lost his family's sword, there would be hell to pay, namely his father.

As he started to get up (which his stomach was still not too happy about), he began to look around at the other students, still filing off the airship. There were many different types of people, he saw. There where many different types of weapons, as well. He usually checked for weapons as that meant he was going to get thrashed. Jaune saw lots of different types of weapons. Some students had some traditional looking swords, but most had some weird amalgamation of different weapons. One student he saw had a particularly nasty looking grenade launcher, which he would be sure to stay away from.

As he started making his way to the main hall for orientation, he got the strange feeling that he would have fun here. He had no way of telling where that feeling had come from, but Jaune had always trusted his instincts, despite them sometimes leading him into trouble.

* * *

Lucky for Jaune, his gut lead him to someone else's trouble this time. He watched as the snooty girl with the ponytail stalked off after yelling at the impossibly young redhead. From what Jaune gathered, the younger girl had done something to mess up her hair. At least that's what Jaune thought.

He started to walk up to her to introduce himself when she lay down in the center of the courtyard. Jaune thought she was weird, but who was he to judge. When he finally reached her, he put out his hand to help her up.

"Hey. I'm Jaune." he introduced himself as she took his hand and got up.

"Ruby" she said, then snorted, which Jaune thought was kinda cute. What she said next was not as cute.

"Aren't you the guy that threw up on the ship?" _'Great.'_ he thought, _'I already have a bad reputation.'_ Little did he know, he would be fast friends with this nice, quirky young girl.

* * *

**Author's note: Hey everyone, thanks for reading through this first chapter. This is my first RWBY fanfiction, and I haven't written for a couple years, so it may be a little rough at first, but I hope to get better and make this story a hit.**

**So quick note: I'll be making this as I can, so no real regular updates, but I hope to be working on it as much as I can. The story will have everything the main series has, minus the Roman/Cinder stuff. Cinder should be in the story somewhere (not too sure yet) but they are not currently plotting to destroy everything. Roman is a somewhat infamous crook, who has his own band of men, and is going about his usual thing, stealing dust, so Ruby did fight him at the dust shop in Vale, and he did get away.**

**I'll mostly be diverging from the main storyline, but I wanted to set up the world abit, plus having the first couple episodes to draw from helped me actually figure out what to write to start off. I'll also be switching between character viewpoints throughout, but I do have a fondness for Jaune, so he'll get a good deal of attention.**

**So anyway, rate and review as you see fit, and I will hopefully turn this into a nice, long story that will basically be how RWBY would progress if I was writing it, so expect the best of ships as well as some surprises.**


	2. Chapter 2: A New Friend

**Author's Note: So from here on out, the events of the story will take place after episode 14, the culmination of the Jaune 'Arc'(I know, its an old joke but it's still funny). I have plans to introduce Cinder and Team CRDL as well as Neopal Atin(the name I came up with for Neopalitan, the character that shows up to save Roman at the end of episode 4 in Volume 2), but I want to wait until Neo(as her friends call her) gets more of her own personality, so I can build off of that.**

**I'm also going to start getting into the back-stories I came up with for just about every character(still working on Ruby and Yang as well as Dove, Sky and Russel) as well as how the characters interact.**

**Without further ado, here is Chapter 2 of A Simple Soul!**

* * *

Lunch was a real pain for Jaune after the field trip to Forever Fall. Ever since the word got out that he beheaded an ursa major with one stroke (Jaune had no idea how people knew, Cardin said he didn't tell anyone about what happened that day), he had become a sort of school hero. Jaune certainly liked being the hero for once and not the lovable idiot stuck in the tree, but what he did not like was all the attention. He did appreciate that most people respected his wish of eating with his friends, but every now and then, someone would try to sit with his group, which would pretty much kill all conversation for that lunch period.

As he sat down for lunch, he noticed no one was trying to sit with him, which was good; it meant he could just have a nice conversation with his friends and get back to classes on a high note. Almost as soon as he sat down, Nora started off, explaining another of her crazy dreams, which Ren would immediately correct. It was weird how he knew what she dreamed about, but Jaune never gave it much thought.

As Nora started mentioning a pack of deathstalkers (Jaune didn't bother paying attention to his team-mate's strange dreams, so he didn't really hear what she was going on about) Jaune noticed a certain group of bullies picking on a certain bunny-eared faunus again. Jaune sighed and decided she had had enough for the day.

Jaune got up from his seat, to the surprise of most of his friends, and started towards the unfortunate girl. He noticed on the way over that Cardin was not actually helping his team-mates taunt the poor girl, but was just sitting to the side, eating his lunch.

_'At least he's learned a lesson'_ Jaune thought, just as he stopped in front of the remainder of team CRDL.

"What do you want?" Russel said when he noticed him, looking slightly nervous with his question.

"I want you to leave my friend alone." Jaune replied as he balled his fist, ready for a fight. _'Cardin may not be a total dick now, but his team sure are.'_ He thought as he relaxed himself a bit, readying his aura's shield if he needed it.

Surprisingly, Jaune would not actually need it as Cardin got up and started to walk off, ordering his team to the combat arena for some quick practice before classes started again. Dove and Sky both got up immediately, but Russel dawdled a bit, before leaving himself, looking back at Jaune with a mix of anger and fear on his face.

_'I guess my reputation does have its benefits.'_ He thought to himself as he unclenched his fist and turned toward the faunus girl.

"Don't worry about them. I'm sure Cardin will be keeping his lackeys in line for a while. I'm Jaune. What's your name?" he asked the bunny-eared girl.

"Velvet" came the almost inaudible response.

"Well it's nice to meet you, Velvet. Would you like to eat with my friends and I? That way, if they do come back, we can protect you." Velvet blushed a little at his offer, but nodded her head.

Jaune led her back to where his friends sat, watching him. She decided to sit on the end, next to RWBY, which put her next to Blake. The two girls shared a slight look before Blake returned to whatever book she was reading today.

As Nora continued her vastly exaggerated dream, Jaune thought he saw a small smirk from his partner, but shrugged it off after shifting his head to see if he was right.

* * *

Pyrrha was only mildly surprised when Jaune got up and went over to defend the girl team CRDL was picking on today. After his run-in with the ursa major (and her part in his victory over it) Jaune had been acting more like a leader, sticking up for those who were in trouble. That is probably what she liked the most in him.

At this point, Pyrrha was glad she had started the rumor that Jaune took down that ursa major, and was very happy in her luck, having been partnered with such an upright, and honorable person.

* * *

"Do you still believe Mr. Arc doesn't belong at this school, Glynda?"

Professor Ozpin looked on; giving a slight smirk to his side, knowing it would infuriate his disciplinary supervisor.

Professor Goodwitch scoffed and waltzed off, looking for any school code infractions she could punish students for.

Professor Ozpin's smirk widened into a smile as he turned around and started walking toward his office. As he sipped his hot chocolate, he thought of just how wrong Glynda would be in the coming months.

* * *

**Author's note: I'll make this brief(giggle): I'm trying to start off with more Jaune, because again, he is one of the best characters, as well as easier to mold, due to how his character comes across in the show. We also start to see a bit of Ozpin and Glynda's relationship, as well as Ozpin knowing what's coming (le gasp! Probably something to do with his semblance, or maybe he just predicts shit, you don't know [I'm not too sure either at this point, but that's beside the point])**

**I'll probably start the next chapter as I need to stay awake for a while longer, but it will not be in any reasonable shape until later, so it will be another day or two before the next part comes out, so until then, grit thy teeth and await Thursday.**

**(Don't forget to Rate/Review and Follow/Favorite to stay up to date on A Simple Soul. See if you can find all the references/easter eggs!)**


	3. Chapter 3: A Night of Training Pt 1

**Author's Note: Fast forward time again. This is set one week before the dance pictured in the Volume 2 trailer cause reasons. We also see the aftermath of Pyrrha's fight against Mercury, which I just made a practice match, like Jaune versus Cardin. I'm not too sure how I'll work him and Emerald in, but I will. Just to clarify, everything has happened just like the show, so teams RWBY and JNPR know Blake is a faunus(spoilers), We've met Sun and Neptune, and the fight against the giant mech took place. I mainly decided to use the exact show so far when I came up with Cinder's plan(I'll get back to that) and how everyone plays into it, so Roman is working for her.**

**I've figured out how to work Cinder into the story, but that will take a bit of time. I actually came up with her main plan in the shower, and I nearly died when I did. I wrote it out as well as another scene soon after it as well, but they are both well into the story. I now have four scenes at least partially written that will not see the light of day for quite a few chapters, but hey, I have them all set so I just need to get to them. Of those four scenes, three are big, plot centric scenes, while one is a small paragraph to remind me of a joke to put in later.**

**Anyway, here's Chapter 3!**

Jaune sat in the assembly hall, watching Pyrrha fight a weird-looking guy. His weapons where very odd too. He seemed to be using something similar to Yang's gauntlets, but he had them on his feet, instead of his wrists, which really made no sense to Jaune. and was slightly startled when Glynda blew her whistle to signal the end of the match.

"Mr Black's aura has dropped into the red. In the interest of time, I am calling the match now. Ms. Nikos wins. Now, while I have all your attention, I have an announcement to make. Traditionally, the Vytal Festival Dance is held after the festival, and celebrates the winner. Due to the Vytal festival tournament falling on a weekend, the dance has been moved up to be the night before the festival begins. I suggest you start finding dates now, as you only have a week before the dance is to take place. You are dismissed." Professor Goodwitch walked off stage, allowing Pyrrha to go back to her team.

As she made her way down to where her team sat, she saw Jaune lean over to talk to Weiss, which brought a slight scowl to her face. She decided she just wanted to go take a shower, and would meet up with her team-mates later. As she stalked towards the dorms, Pyrrha decided she was done waiting for Jaune. _'He WILL be my date for the dance. There is no way that stuck up princess is taking him from me.'_

* * *

Jaune unlocked the door to his dorm with his scroll and fell into his bed, groaning and sighing as he made his way from the door to his little corner of the room. He did not notice that Pyrrha had gotten in just minutes before him and was very surprised when she popped her head out of the bathroom.

"What's the matter Jaune?" she asked, hoping she could do something to comfort her adorkable leader.

Jaune fell onto his back in surprise, yelping when he hit the ground. "Pyrrha, don't scare me like that!" he squeaked back at her.

"I'm sorry." Pyrrha started to make her way over to him so that she could help him up, but he grabbed onto his bed frame and lifted himself up on his own. "So what's bothering you?"

Jaune sat back down on his bed, and Pyrrha sat down next to him. "I still don't have a date for the dance this weekend. I asked Weiss but she shot me down, again. I thought with my grades improving, I might have had a better shot with her, but she just laughed all the way out of the main hall when I asked her."

"I'm sorry Jaune." Pyrrha was not sorry, and it took almost all of her will-power to keep from smiling. "You know what makes me feel better?"

"What's that?" Jaune shifted his position on the bed so he could see her better.

"Training. Come on." Pyrrha grabbed Jaune's arm and led him up to the roof, despite his groans of disinterest.

When the pair got up to the roof, Jaune had all but given up and feared what his partner had in mind for today. "So what are we doing today? Blocking? Attacking? Maybe grappling again?" he asked, really hoping she did not say grappling. He remembered the last time they practiced hand-to-hand combat had gotten pretty awkward after some slips of the hands, on Jaune's part, as well as Pyrrha's.

Jaune looked confused when Pyrrha sat down cross-legged near the middle of the roof and beckoned him to do the same. "None of the above, actually. I'm going to teach you an aura exercise I learned a few years ago from the person who unlocked my aura." She gave a slight giggle as Jaune slumped down, visibly relieved he did not have to practice combat drills against her again.

"This excercise will require all of your attention, so this is not to be done mid-combat, but it can be quite useful when you need help." She took up a meditative pose and gestured for Jaune to do the same. "I want you to empty your mind of everything. Then, I want you to focus on me. Bring up a memory of me, think of my face, anything."

Jaune blushed slightly at this, but seemed to comply. Closing his eyes, he rid himself of all worries he had, constantly pressing on his mind, and thought of just Pyrrha, specifically of when she found him in the Emerald Forest, pinned to the tree by his hoodie. He remembered how Pyrrha's spear had saved him from hitting the ground at high-speed, saving him from any broken bones he surly would have gotten had she not intervened. He also thought of how beautiful and strong she looked as she walked up to him, just after Weiss had left him stuck to the tree.

_'Well now, I had no idea you thought that way about me.'_

"Gah!" Jaune's eyes shot open as he fell backwards. The voice he had just heard in his head had not been the one he was used to; it was that of his partner. He thought it impossible that he had heard his partner's voice in his head, and was about to write it off as his brain acting up, but then he noticed Pyrrha giggling away in front of him. "What? I just thought of a Nevermore picking me up and carrying me away." He lied, trying to hide that he had imagine her voice in his head.

"No you weren't. You were thinking of how beautiful I looked as I showed up to save you in the forest." Pyrrha smirked at him.

By now Jaune had made his way back into a sitting position, but as he registered what she had just said, gave out another surprised shout and fell backwards again. "Are you a wizard? Like from the moon or something? How did you know what I was thinking?"

"I was in your head silly. That's what this exercise is about: telepathically connecting to another person's mind. Like I said, it requires your full concentration, so we unlinked when I startled you, but you had it down for a few seconds." She giggled again at his wizard remark.

"Wait, you were in my head?" he asked incredulously.

"Yes. That's how I know you look at my behind from time to time." She said with a smirk.

Again, Jaune had made his way back to a sitting position, and was startled out of it by what his partner said. "I can explain!" he said, standing up, not wanting to fall over again from shock.

"You don't have to. I think it's kinda cute actually." She said, following suite.

"You what?" Jaune was almost certain he was dreaming by now. There was no way this was real.

"I think you checking out my rear is cute. Just you, though. The way you tilt your head to the side is adorable." Pyrrha started to make her way towards Jaune, who started backing away until he hit the wall.

"Okay, I am defiantly dreaming now. Would you mind telling me how to wake up, weird dream Pyrrha?" Jaune was quite bewildered at this point. Most of his dreams had been about Weiss, not his team-mate, so this was a new experience for him.

"You are not dreaming, Jaune. Let me show you." As she got up right next to Jaune, she put her arms around his neck and pressed herself against him. "Would it feel this real if it were a dream?" She asked as she looked into his eyes.

"Um… No?" he was really flustered now. His cheeks where a deeper red than her hair, which made Pyrrha smile slightly.

"Good. Now that we sorted that out, would you like to continue the exercise?" Pyrrha said in a more sultry voice than usual.

"Um, Okay?" Jaune was really red now, and Pyrrha liked it.

**Author's Note: These are not supposed to be daily, I swear. Also, this is the first time I've written a romancey scene, and I'm not too happy with it, but I think it comes across alright. Let me know how you think I did. Anyway, we get into some steamy stuff here, but I really just cut the chapter here, so next one continues from where I left off here, so you will see what happens after I've written it. I'll do a small recap too, just so that no one forgets how stuff went down, but for now, have fun speculating kiddies!**

**UPDATE 9/1/15 (I come from the future! JK, meant to be 9/1/14): Well what do you know? I totally called Pyrrha and Mercury fighting just before the dance (and Jaune asking Weiss out and being shot down miserably, again), and it was totally not dumb luck. I'm half tempted to tweak the opening to follow the show more closely, but it's too much work for right now, so I'll just leave it.**

**(Don't forget to Rate/Review and Follow/Favorite to stay up to date on A Simple Soul. See if you can find all the references/easter eggs!)**


	4. Chapter 4: A Night of Training Pt 2

**Author's Note: Let's do a quick recap to make sure no one got lost(I say recap, it's just the last couple lines of the last chapter, but oh well)**

**"You are not dreaming, Jaune. Let me show you." As she got up right next to Jaune, she put her arms around his neck and pressed herself against him. "Would it feel this real if it were a dream?" She asked as she looked into his eyes.**

**"Um… No?" he was really flustered now. His cheeks where a deeper red than her hair, which made Pyrrha smile slightly.**

**"Good. Now that that is sorted out, would you like to continue the exercise?" Pyrrha said in a more sultry voice than usual.**

**"Um, Okay?" Jaune was really red now, and Pyrrha liked it.**

**And now, we return to your regularly (hah that's a laugh) scheduled fanfic.**

Pyrrha started to lean in for a kiss and Jaune was getting REALLY red. Just as their lips where about to meet, Pyrrha spun around and returned to her spot in the center of the roof. "Good, then let's get back to it."

Jaune looked quite confused, and quite relived, but also disappointed at the same time. He returned to his spot a few feet in front of her.

**What? Did you think Pyrrha's gonna give it up on the first date? Bad reader. (bops you on the nose) Pyrrha is classy as fuck. This is rated M for the feels to come, not lemon. (bops you on the nose again) She apparently likes putting Jaune in awkward situations. Maybe we will see more of this, maybe not. I don't know. Now that we got that out of the way…**

As his heart started to slow down, he returned to how he was sitting before… well, before. As he closed his eyes, he found it impossible to think of anything BUT Pyrrha, so that part was easy. Pretty soon, he heard her voice in his head again _'Jaune, can you hear me?'_ He mentally flinched, but was able to maintain the connection this time. _'Jaune, just think of what you want to say and it will come across as you saying it.'_ Pyrrha said, pretty much reading his mind. No, she was reading his mind. He had just been thinking about how to respond to her, and she heard him, so she responded. This is going to take some getting used to. _'It becomes second nature after a while'_ Pyrrha thought to him.

_'Alright, testing, testing. Bananas taste funny. Orange, monkey, eagle. Did you get that?'_ I really hope she got that and not the other thing, Jaune thought to himself.

_'Yes, I got it, as well as the other thing. I'm just going to pretend that never happened.'_ Pyrrha thought. _'Try to keep your mind focused, and not let stray thoughts through.'_

_'Right, sorry. So what is the point of this again?'_ he thought to Pyrrha.

_'Well, if you are stuck somewhere, you can telepathically reach out and connect to my mind, and ask for help. It doesn't really work if we are both in the same situation, and connecting like this does drain aura, so you must be careful when you try to connect to me. The farther you are from me, the more aura it takes to establish a connection, so you have a somewhat limited range.'_

_'So how does this work? Does it drain both of our auras, or just mine?'_ Jaune asked, trying to make sense of what Pyrrha was telling him.

_'Think of it like using a pay-phone.'_ Pyrrha thought, after a short period, trying to find the best way to get her point across.

_'What's a pay phone?'_ Jaune asked. He heard what sounded like a mental sigh come from Pyrrha.

All of a sudden, his head was filled with pictures of people using a small booth on the side of roads. He saw that people put in lien coins to operate the phone. He instantly understood the concept, too which was a jarring feeling.

_'What was that?'_ Jaune thought, a little freaked out by what just happened.

_'This connection also lets you send memories or concepts, instead of just voice thoughts. It's like a video chat that has access to all your memories and learned facts.'_

_'Okay. So it's like using a video payphone. The person who starts the connection pays the aura amount and continues to pay a certain amount as long as the connection is open. It can also send memories or facts that I am aware of, like the phone booth thing.'_ Jaune thought, trying to sum up what he was being told, more for his benefit than hers.

_'Correct. You should probably end the connection. It's been a few minutes so your aura must be fairly low by now.'_ Pyrrha thought, with a hint of concern in her mind.

Jaune did a quick mental check of his aura (another skill Pyrrha had taught him) and saw that his aura was still at about 95%. _'I've still got most of my aura left. I guess because of the distance, it's not using much to keep the connection open.'_ He thought, mentally sending her his aura percentage.

_'Wow. You must have a huge amount of aura, even more than I thought was possible. I was only able to maintain a connection with my mentor for about 5 minutes until my aura dropped below 20%. We've been going for at least that long.'_ Pyrrha thought, quite surprised at his seemingly infinite supply of aura.

_'You know what they say, bigger is better.'_ Jaune tried to lighten the mood a bit with a joke, and judging by Pyrrha's mental giggle, he had succeeded._ 'So what else can this connection do?'_ He was getting quite curious now about this new ability's uses.

_'Well, you know it can send memories and concepts, as well as using it for a mental conversation. It can also show what you plan to do. For example if I do this…'_

Pyrrha then showed him what she was doing, what she was thinking to let Jaune know what she was planning to do, and then showed him that she planned to slug him right in the face. Jaune had just enough time to react, grabbing her wrist mere inches from his face, making her fist stop short of it's target.

_'Very good. Other than that, this connection has little use. You can only connect with me, and only when not in combat, so we can't use it to link together in a fight, but it has it's uses.'_ Pyrrha thought, pretty much done with her presentation.

_'Okay. I think I've got the hang of this.'_ He thought. _'We should probably go back inside, though. It's getting pretty late, and I'm getting tired.'_ Jaune cut the link and yawned as he opened his eyes.

"You did well. You caught on fast, way faster than you do with combat moves." Pyrrha said, making Jaune feel somewhat inferior. "You are coming along with combat though. You are far superior now than you were when we first started training together. I'm proud of you."Pyrrha noticed what she said had affected him, and quickly reassured him.

"You may be the only one." Jaune mumbled, quiet enough that Pyrrha should not have heard.

Pyrrha did hear what he had said, however and gave a slight frown as they made their way back to their dorm. She decided that he had shared enough for one day. She had been in his head, after all. Jaune deserved to be able to keep some things from her. That doesn't mean she was happy with the idea.

**Author's Note: So yeah. Pyrrha's unhappy when Jaune is unhappy. You may see what's going on here, especially since I am telegraphing the Arkos. It's not one of the surprises of the story, though so don't worry. There are plenty of whoppers coming, so get ready(and hold onto your butts (: )**

**I came up with this mind link thing to give Jaune and Pyrrha a unique connection, making them even more of a perfect ship. We'll see abit more of this link in use, especially when I get to back stories for both Jaune and Pyrrha. I wanted to really only use it as a writing tool, and not a way to make Jaune massively overpowered, so I limited it quite abit.**

**Also, I swear to Christ these will have more time in between them. I only got this far as I was still bored at work after writing and submitting the last chapter, so I kept writing. There will come a day when I am not posting a new chapter, but apparently, that is not this day.**

**Also, also: obligatory FOOOOOOLED YOU!(maybe)**

**(Don't forget to Rate/Review and Follow/Favorite to stay up to date on A Simple Soul. See if you can find all the references/easter eggs!)**


	5. Chapter 5: A Happy Birthday

**UPDATE: Basically, Chapter X has no number until I get to that point in the timeline. Ignore the first couple sentences.**

**Author's Note: Okay so I fiddled with the timeline abit and released the chapter that takes place AFTER this one BEFORE I posted this. To clarify, the order of chapters is the order in the timeline, so this takes place BEFORE the next chapter, and I will continue releasing the chapters that take place before it until I get to the point in the story where that chapter takes place. It will only be a few more chapters before we get there, but it may be a short while. **

**Anyway, I was going to delay this chapter a little more as this takes place on the Monday after the dance, and as the dance is not really over in the main series, I was ready to wait so I could keep it tied to it. I decided to just screw it and release these when I have them and not worry too much about linking to the show exactly. Hopefully that means I can get chapters out a little faster, but it will likely be a chapter a week for now.**

**I have been working on this chapter since I posted chapter 4, so it took me a while to get it how I liked it, especially since Nora is a bit weird for me to write. Now that I've got a better idea, hopefully she will be slightly easier in the future. Anyway, without further ado, Chapter 5(chronologically)**

Ren was having a weird dream. It was night time. For some reason, he was fighting dozens of ursi with Nora. The pair easily decimated the large number of Grimm, which was pretty easy to do. As soon as they felled the last ursa, Nora started skinning them, bundling the skins onto her back. Then, the setting suddenly changed to a market in town, Nora holding a handful of lien.

* * *

Ren woke up to Nora bouncing on his stomach. "Nora, get off me."

"Okay!" Nora leaped off his bed, then spun around and bounced in place, waiting for Ren to get out of bed. "Do you know what today is? Because I know what day it is. It's Monday the 18th, which means either there is a full moon, which I doubt, or it's your birthday! At least I think it is. It is your birthday right? Did I get the wrong month again? Awwww. If I got the wrong month, then that means I made the cake for nothing which means…"

"Nora." Ren said, sitting up and stretching in place.

"Yes Ren?"Nora immediately grew quiet, waiting for Ren to tell her what he wanted.

"You got the right month. Now if you don't mind, I'd like to have breakfast before sweets." Ren said, getting up and walking to the bathroom to take a shower.

* * *

Ren quickly showered and dressed, then headed off to the cafeteria, Nora in tow. When they got there, Ren noticed that Jaune and Pyrrha were sitting together, eating breakfast. As he got closer, he noticed that they both had their eyes closed. 'Weird.' Ren decided to just ignore it, and went to grab breakfast.

By the time he got back to the table, Jaune and Pyrrha had opened their eyes, and finished off most of their respective meals.

Ren sat down across from them, and almost immediately, a hyper-as-ever Nora assaulted his side.

"Reeeeen! I've got your caaaaake!" Nora practically squealed.

"Do you even remember our conversation earlier?" Ren said, with a slight sigh "I said breakfast BEFORE sweets."

Nora was completely unfazed and replied "That's the beauty of it! Your cake IS breakfast!" As she said this, she pulled a decent sized cake from behind her back, which was, surprisingly, not a cake. Nora placed the decent stack of pancakes, syrup and all, onto the table in front of Ren and quickly jabbed a candle in the middle.

"See? Isn't it just sooooo cool?" Nora paused before blabbering on again "I came up with the idea just yesterday! It's great cause you can have it like a cake, but it's not sweet like a cake. I know you don't really like sweets too much, so it's perfect. Plus, pancakes are kinda cakes as they are named pan-CAKES after all!" Nora gave a quick giggle before moving to light the cake.

Pyrrha quickly grabbed the lighter from the spaz, saying "Why don't you let me do that?" Ren gave her a look that said 'Thank god' and gave a long sigh. "Alright, let's get this over with." Ren said, waiting for his teammate to light the candle.

Just as the candle caught fire, the unexpected happened: Jaune pulled a guitar from under the table and started to play the opening chords to the birthday song, just as RWBY exploded out from under the table, startling Ren. Everyone started singing the traditional birthday song everyone from Vale knew by heart. A few teams from the tables around them joined in, not really knowing what was happening.

As the group finished the song, Ren leaned in and gave a small puff to extinguish the candle, but almost as quickly as it went out, it reignited. Ren gave a slight look of bewilderment before he realized what had happened. Nora was slapping her legs laughing, joined by Yang once she figured it out.

"A trick candle! Good one Nora!" the blonde brawler gave Nora a quick high-five and continued laughing.

Ren frowned slightly, and then gave a small smile. "Funny Nora. Not as funny as every other time you've done this, but still, funny."

"PRESANT TIME!" Nor shouted in Ren's ear, effectively deafening him for a few seconds.

Nora quickly pulled out a small box wrapped in pink paper. She handed it to Ren and then proceeded to jump up and down where she stood, clapping her hands together.

Ren carefully peeled the paper off and opened the box. Inside, he found a pricy looking pin with Nora's symbol on it, centered in the middle flower of Ren's symbol. Nora's symbol seemed to be made of one single gem, somehow cut in just the right places to form the hammer/lightning bolt combo.

Weiss looked flabbergasted, knowing full well how much a piece like this would cost. She opened her mouth slightly, about to ask how Nora could possibly afford it, when Ren gave her a look that said 'Don't ask' and she snapped her jaw closed. She still looked perplexed, but decided to humor him.

Pyrrha pulled out a moderately sized case, and put it in front of Ren. "This is from Jaune and me. We figured you could use it." She said, waiting for him to open it. When he did, he found a whole kit, made specifically for cleaning and maintaining Stormflower. "I saw that you use some older pieces and had to use some multi-purposed cleaners here and there, so Jaune and I went into Vale and got some specialized cleaning fluid, along with some brushes to clean the firing mechanisms and a small whetstone kit to sharpen the blades."

Ren looked up to his teammates and gave a small, polite nod. "Thank you, I'm sure it will come in handy." He said, closing the case.

"And last, but not least, here's our gift!" Ruby pulled out a medium sized box, sloppily wrapped in red paper. "We all pitched in, some more than others." Weiss gave a slight nod "It certainly helps being the heiress to a multi-billion lien corporation." Ruby rolled her eyes "ANYWAY, here you go. We asked Nora to get the right size, which in hindsight may not have been the best idea but I think she got it right."

Ren gave a small nod "We do most of our shopping together, so we know each other's sizes." He replied matter-of-factly.

Yang perked up at this "Oh really?" She made sure to waggle her eyebrows at him, making him blush slightly.

Ren decided to ignore his lewd friend and started dismantling the ball of paper that was team RWBY's gift. "Who wrapped this?" he asked, flabbergasted how this much paper could be used for one box.

"Ruby insisted. It could be worse, trust me." Blake responded, their whole team knowing full well how bad her present wrapping could be, shuddering when they remembered her Christmas presents to all of them.

As Ren finally got down to the box, he opened it to find a jacket, very similar in style to his, but this jacket was a deep black with pink designs running over it. It also had his symbol on the right tail, again in pink.

"Thank you, guys. It looks great." Ren said, admiring the precision stitching on the designs.

"It's more of a formal jacket, so you can wear it to the school dances." Weiss said, before being interrupted by Yang. "Yeah! It's perfect too as it'll match Nora's dresses!" Yang again waggled her eyebrows at Ren.

Ren just sighed and folded the jacket back up to be placed in the box.

Ren started to pack his things together, hoping to move them out of the way before Nora initiated the last phase of her usual party template.

"You're not leaving yet are you Ren? There's just one last thing to do to make this a REAL party!" Nora shouted, an evil looking grin spreading across her face. Ren sighed and slumped back down into his seat.

As she pulled out Magnhild, everyone's faces paled. Jaune moved to stop her while the rest of his friends took cover. "Nora! You know there are no weapons allowed in the cafeteria!"Jaune yelled, reaching out to grab the high powered weapon out of the hands of the crazy person who wielded it.

Ren, on the other hand, knew exactly what Nora was planning and put an arm on Jaune to stop him. "It'll be fine." He said, pulling Jaune down to sit next to him. "Just keep your head down."

Nora pointed Magnhild in grenade launcher form to the ceiling, scaring every table around them, making the students run for the exits for the second time that semester.

Nora fired her weapon shooting a normal grenade with the pink heart on the tip, arcing the shot slightly. Just as the grenade reached it's apex, it exploded, but it was not the usual, pink sparkly explosion of her standard grenades. As team RWBY stuck their heads out from under the table to see what was happening, multi-colored confetti rained down on them.

Everyone was utterly confused, while Ren sat there with a smirk on his face. "What? Did you think I'd let her fire a live grenade in the cafeteria?" Ren said, looking to Jaune. "Two years ago, Nora realized she could make custom confetti rounds for her weapon, turning it into her own personal confetti canon."

"Well at least she didn't bring the roof down. You know, because it's a party?" Yang said, followed quickly by a collective groan.

* * *

Neptune and Sun stood just a few tables from their eccentric friends, Sun with his usual wild grin plastered on his face, Neptune glaring daggers at Sun. When the confetti round went off, Neptune had been coated in confetti, while Sun merely had some in his hair.

"Why do I hang out with you people?" Neptune said, trying to brush as much confetti off of him as he could while maintaining his death-glare.

"Because we're awesome." Sun said, jogging over to meet his friends.

**UPDATE 9/15/14: Apparently I can words like I can girls (not well), so I fixed a few typos in the A/N. **

**I've got another chapter ALMOST ready, but it's not the next one, but the one after the next. I need to link the end of this chapter to the beginning of the next, which I may do by making a long chapter, or I may just make another chapter, but I'm not sure which to do just yet. I do want to have my friend look it over as well, as it'll be a somewhat more important chapter (yes, we're getting to actual important plot parts soon) which shouldn't take TOO long.**

**I have a few days off of work and I was forced to drop my classes (coming up with bullshit answers for only 12 of 22 questions on the first exam is no way to pass a class) so I've got more time on my hands, as well as less stress. **

**I also ordered parts for my first PC build (YAY!) so that will be ready in about a week, so I will soon have a nice, actual workstation to sit down and write. **

**So, until the next chapter, grit thy teeth and await Thursday!**

**(Don't forget to Rate/Review and Follow/Favorite to stay up to date on A Simple Soul. See if you can find all the references/easter eggs!)**


	6. Chapter 6: A New Student Pt 1

Sun walked up to his friends with Neptune not far behind, still trying to get confetti out of his hair. After mumbling something about Nora ruining his 'perfectly styled' hair, he gave up and sat down next to Ren.

Jaune looked around Ren to look at their newly arrived friends. "Hey Sun, Neptune." Jaune gave a slight nod to Neptune, which he returned.

"So what's up? Not that I don't think there should be confetti when I walk in the room." Sun said, sliding in to sit down next to Blake.

"It's Ren's birthday. Want some cake?" Yang offered a plate with a slice of the pancake stack to each of the newcomers.

"I told you it would work as a cake! It's got the word cake in it already." Sun said, jabbing a fork at Neptune before starting to eat.

"That's what I thought!" Nora plopped down between Jaune and Ren, having stowed Magnhild on her back.

"Whatever." Neptune turned to face Ren. "Had we known it was your birthday, we would have gotten you something. Scratch that: I would have gotten you something. Apparently Mr. 'laid back' over here didn't celebrate birthdays in Vacuo."

"Don't worry about it. It's not really that important." Ren shrugged. "I would really skip the whole day, given the option, but Nora loves to throw parties, so I let her on special occasions. It keeps her form going overboard everyday."

"How do you put up with it? I mean you seem so calm when everything Nora does is just so…." Neptune fidgeted his hands, searching for a way to describe the girl currently stroking Sun's tail.

"Nora?" Ren almost chuckled at the thought of trying to describe Nora in simple terms. "Nora is like the human embodiment of joy and laughter. She seems to have made it her mission to bring a smile to everyone's face. Unless you wrong her or her friends, that is. You do NOT want to piss her off."

"I've heard stories. Did she really try to break that Winchester guy's legs?" Neptune said, glancing at the commotion on the other side of the table. Sun had gotten up and was being chased by Nora, who seemed to be shouting something about "her cuddle-monkey" while the majority of the group was laughing. Blake, however, was quite unimpressed with Nora, but buried her nose in her book to hide it.

"Unfortunately, yes. We were only able to get her to stop when Jaune stepped in between her and Cardin. He promised to make her pancakes for a month if she would stop bothering him. He was exhausted that whole month from waking up early to make them."

"I had no idea Jaune could cook." Neptune looked at Jaune who was busy laughing at Nora trying to reach Sun, who had grabbed onto one of the rafters with his tail, leaving him to dangle just out of the pouting girl's reach. 'First he can dance, now he can cook, man this guy is full of surprises.'

"He certainly is more than he seems." Ren replied, the crypticness of his voice making him sound just like Professor Ozpin.

"Hey Neptune, I think it's time to go. We've got that thing that we have to do, remember?" Sun said, still dangling from the rafters, afraid of what Nora might do if she got hold of the boy.

Neptune chuckled. "Right, the history paper for Professor Rowe, back in Haven." Neptune was of course pulling an excuse out of thin air, but Nora at least believed it and slumped back into her seat. Neptune got up from his seat and started to make his way out of the cafeteria.

"Yeah, that. It's like we don't have a tournament we have to prepare for." Sun said, hopping down to walk away with his partner.

"Like you've been preparing for the tournament." Neptune shot back. The duo continued to bicker until they left the cafeteria, drawing everyone's attention.

"I swear, those two are like a married couple sometimes." Yang mused out loud, getting slight chuckles from a few of her friends.

"Right. Well, if you'll excuse me, I need to use the restroom." Pyrrha got up and made her way to the restrooms, which were located in the hallway, just outside the cafeteria. As she made her way out from the restroom, she caught sight of a figure making its way down the hall past the cafeteria doors.

The figure had on a traveling cloak, but had his hood down so Pyrrha was able to catch sight of some familiar tousled brown hair.

"Cole!" Pyrrha ran up to the figure and grabbed him in a bear hug from behind. He looked up from the campus map he was studying and tried to turn around to face the red-haired amazon.

"Pyrrha? Fancy meeting you here."

* * *

"Hey guys, I want you to meet someone I went to Sanctum with." Pyrrha and Cole walked up to team RWBY/JNPR's table. "He's decent with a sword, but not that great with a shield."

"Oh yeah, thanks. I do just fine, thank you very much." Cole moved to stand at the end of the table, patiently waiting for Pyrrha to introduce her friends. Blake gave him a quick glance, which he noticed and winked at her. She sighed, rolled her eyes and placed the book she was reading onto the table.

By now, Jaune looked up from his third piece of (pan)cake, having recognized the voice of Pyrrha's tormentee. "Oh, hey Cole." He said, much to Pyrrha's surprise. Her head snapped to look at Jaune, then Cole, and then back to Jaune. She took a moment to compose herself before speaking.

"Jaune, how do you know Cole?" Pyrrha looked befuddled still, but she was more curios than anything.

Cole took a step up to answer the question for Jaune. "Have I never told you that my mom is an Arc? I thought I did. Jaune, here and I are cousins. Hell, we're practically brothers." At this, Jaune stood up and moved over to stand next to Cole. "Don't you see the family resemblance?" Cole grabbed Jaune around the shoulders, pulling him closer. Pyrrha scrutinized their faces for a second, and decided that they looked almost nothing alike. Their hair was the only thing that seemed to be the same, which was a similar length and tousled in a somewhat mirrored manner.

Pyrrha punched Cole in the shoulder, displeased at his sarcasm. "I see you are still that same annoying Cole I knew. Anyway" Pyrrha turned to look at the remainder of their teams, who ranged from mildly curious to downright flabbergasted. "This is Colby Blu, my friend from Sanctum. We were sparring partners for a good portion of the time there, and naturally, he lost every time."

"First of all, just call me Cole. It's short, sweet, and unlike Casanova over here," Cole nudged Jaune in the side "The ladies do tend to love it. Secondly," Cole shifted to face Pyrrha "I won at least a few of our matches, and even when I lost, you were still pretty winded afterwards. Besides, who can stand up to the 4 time Mistral Champion?"

"So what are you doing here Cole?" Jaune asked, sitting down with Pyrrha, leaving room for Cole to sit between them.

"Don't you ever check your scroll? I sent you a few messages when I heard you were going to Beacon." Cole moved over to sit down between them.

Jaune looked down, sheepishly. "I uh… had to change my number."

Cole gave a quick chortle. "Again? What happened this time?"

Jaune slumped even lower in his seat. "My scroll kinda snapped."

Weiss piped up, almost surprised at how inept Jaune must be to snap a scroll. "How did you manage that? Scrolls have been manufactured to withstand a small Ursa."

"It's a long story." Jaune said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"If you want a REALLY long one, ask him what happened to his last one. Remember that?" Cole elbowed his cousin in the side, a little too sharp for his liking.

"Yeah. I still can't believe it caught fire like that." Jaune said, rubbing his side and glaring at Cole, more due to being ratted out than being elbowed.

Weiss's face was scrunched up, completely dumbfounded. "How did… Never mind. I'll just chalk it up to you being incompetent."

"That one wasn't ENTIRELY his fault, actually." Cole said, coming to his cousin's defense. "That damned moose was partially to blame, after all." Weiss gave a sigh as she rested her face in her hand, completely done with this insane and likely exaggerated story.

"You still haven't really answered the question. What are you doing at Beacon? Are you here for the festival?" Pyrrha said, pulling the conversation back on-track.

"Oh no, I'm attending Beacon." Cole smirked again as Pyrrha's face contorted again in confusion.

"Then why haven't we seen you after a semester and a half?" Ruby asked, cutting off Pyrrha, her attention now fully on Jaune's cousin.

"Special circumstances." Cole's voice lowered slightly "I had to take care of something back at my dad's forge"

"What happened? Is Uncle Cormac OK?"Jaune asked, his aching side forgotten, his voice slightly worried.

"Nothing to worry about. I took care of it." Cole's voice turned into a slight growl with the last sentence. He then immediately perked up "So, Pyrrha, you introduced me, who are your friends? Or does Jaune want to introduce me?" Cole asked, turning to Pyrrha.

Ruby piped up again to introduce her team. "I'm Ruby, leader of team RWBY. This is my partner, Weiss" Weiss extended her hand and Cole shook it with a polite 'nice to meet you' "This is my sister, Yang." Yang waved "and that's her partner, Blake." Blake gave a slight nod.

"That's a nice bow you have there, Blake. Makes it almost look like you have cat ears." Cole said around a smirk. Blake immediately scowled at him, but she lessened her glare after she saw something pop up next to Cole.

Next to Cole was the tip of what looked like a monkey tail. It was the same color as Cole's hair, so it was undoubtedly his. Cole waved slightly with his tail. "It's not like you do, of course, it just looks that way." His smirk grew very wide at his comment, but Blake didn't seem to care. He had figured out she was a faunus, but decided not to outright say it, just to be safe, so he deserved at least a small amount of leniency.

"THAT'S SO COOL! You have a monkey tail! Can I stroke it? Monkeys are soooooo cute, almost as cute as sloths. Plus, both sloths and monkeys can hang by their tails! Can you hang by your tail?" Nora practically exploded having waited patiently for her chance to introduce herself in typical Nora fashion. As such, she was bouncing on the bench, lightly jostling everyone else sat on team JNPR's side.

Ren clamped his hand over Nora's mouth, effectively shutting her up, but not stopping the bouncing. "This is Nora. She's a bit excitable. You can call me Ren."

Cole chuckled lightly. "Hey Ren." He then shifted slightly to face the bouncing bundle of pink. "Hi Nora. Yeah, it is cool. You can stroke it as long as you are VERY gentle. It's a pain to condition and don't even ask how hard it is to get properly groomed. Yes I can hang by my tail. I climb trees all the time just to do so." Weiss gave a slight 'hmmph' at the last part, which Cole didn't really understand.

Ruby was the next to fawn over the tail. "Cool! We have another friend that has a monkey tail too! He likes to climb trees too, but mostly just the one outside our dorm window. He likes to check up on Blake. He does that a lot, actually. Do you two know each other? His name's Sun. Wait, I don't think you know him, he's from Haven. Would you like to meet him?"

"No, I definitely don't know him. It'd be cool to meet him though. Us faunus have to stay together, after all." Cole gave a slight wink to Blake.

Just as he winked, Cole used his tail and caught a flying piece of silverware headed for the back of his head. He moved the tail around to scrutinize the fork, and then turned to see where it had come from. Sitting by the wall was team CRDL, Cardin with his back to team RWBY/JNPR as he appeared to be eating. Sky sat next to him, looking in Cole's direction, quickly whipping around to glare at Russell and Dove, sitting opposite him.

"That's it." Jaune got up and started over to where team CRDL was seated, when he saw that Cole was getting up to follow. "Let me handle these asses. It's one thing to mess with my friends, but it's a WHOLE different tamale when you mess with my cousin." Jaune was fuming, ready to break some legs.

"Jaune, just let Professor Goodwitch handle them. If you get detention, you'll have less time for training." Pyrrha gave Jaune a very worried glance, one that seemed to be more than just concern for one's partner. Cole made a mental note to ask her about it when there weren't legs to break.

"So I take it they've caused problems before?" Cole asked, looking to the rest of Jaune's friends.

Everyone nodded, all looking equally pissed at the bullies sitting on the other side of the cafeteria. "They used to bully Jaune and another of our friends, Velvet. She's a faunus as well." Pyrrha said.

"Well in that case…" Cole grabbed the fork from his tail, flipped it so the prongs where in between his thumb and index finger, and threw it at team CRNL, pinning Russel to the wall by his shirt. "Let's go have a chat."

**Author's Note: So longer chapter this time round, but I may not have as long chapters for too long. The next one should be about just as long, as well as a few of the upcoming chapters. Mostly, it's this long because I just wanted to shove this all out at once. **

**Yeah, meet my OC. This one has alot of me written into him, but I'm making him somewhat different from me as I am boring. His main color is cobalt, if you couldn't figure it out from the name. I'm not great with names, but I do like Cole, so yeah. I'll use him mostly as a secondary character, but the next couple chapters will likely be centered around him, bringing him into the fold of main characters. I wanted to make him somehow connected to Jaune, as he is somewhat similar to me, and it makes sense, but I wanted to make him different at the same time. I will be getting into his background a little more later, but not the next chapter as some shit is gonna go down.**

**I may take a little extra time for the next chapter as I want to get it right, being the first bit of combat in the series. That's right, we're getting combat. Not gonna give it away (even though you can probably guess what's going to happen), you'll just have to read next chapter. **

**(Don't forget to Rate/Review and Follow/Favorite to stay up to date on A Simple Soul. See if you can find all the references/easter eggs!)**


	7. Chapter 7: A New Student Pt 2

**Author's Note: Well I got that done faster than I thought.**

As Jaune and Cole made their way across the cafeteria, Russell tried to pull the fork from the wall, but was having little luck. Dove and Sky moved over to help him, and when Cole and Jaune stopped in front of their table, the combined efforts of Sky, Dove and Russell paid off, throwing all three boys to the ground next to the wall.

Jaune spoke first, looking straight at Russell. "I think you owe my cousin an apology." He said, his voice a low growl.

"Why should I apologize to a filthy faunus?" Russell said, looking somewhat shaken, but standing his ground.

"Because this faunus can kick your ass." Cole said, taking a small step forward, clenching his fist.

"If you're anything like Jaune, I doubt it." Dove butted in, smiling slightly at the thought. Cardin scoffed, but made no move to join the discussion.

"Oh I'm like Jaune alright. Because of that, I will not stand by while you insult my cousin. I challenge you." All of team CRDL plus Jaune looked at him, slightly confused. Cole returned the same look. "Do they not do that here?"

At this point in time, Professor Port, who was eating lunch near the front of the cafeteria, had made his way over to make sure a brawl did not break out in the middle of the cafeteria. "Now what seems to be the problem here?" He asked.

Cole turned to look at him. "Professor, does Beacon honor student challenges?"

"Why, the school does encourage students to challenge one another in combat, as long as it is sanctioned by the staff. What is the reason for this particular challenge, then?" Professor Port answered.

"Personal vendetta." Cole replied, turning back to look at Russell.

"Good show, boy! While Beacon Academy does not condone fighting between students outside of the combat arena, it does encourage the use of the challenge to settle personal matters inside the ring. I shall fetch Professor Goodwitch post haste! Now, who will be participating in this particular duel?"

"How about Jaune and I against these two?" Cole pointed to Russell and Dove. "What do you think Jaune?" Cole said. Jaune simply nodded.

"Well then, do you boys accept the challenge?" Port asked, looking at Russell and Dove.

The team-mates turned away from the group and whispered amongst themselves. Cole's hearing was not the greatest a faunus could have but he was able to make out a few comments. "He took out that Ursa." and "But it's Jaune." where the two that stuck out at him. They turned around again and then nodded. "Excellent! Retrieve your weapons and armor from your lockers and muster in the combat arena. I shall go make the announcement!"

* * *

When Professor Port said "announcement" he really meant it. He took over the PA system and had all students report to the main combat arena to watch the match that was going to take place.

The students had made their way to the combat arena and taken seats in the seating area. The combatants and, in the case of Jaune and Cole, their friends, stood on the edges of the ring. Jaune had changed out of his Beacon uniform into his usual armor, and retrieved Crocea Mors from his locker. Cole, on the other hand, still had on his traveling cloak and had said he didn't need to stop at his locker.

"So where are your weapons? What are your weapons?" Ruby was quite confused, as from what she could tell he did not have anything even remotely weapon-like on him.

Cole gave a giant grin as he looked at the small girl. He took off his cloak, and handed it to Weiss saying "Hold this, will ya?" Weiss immediately dropped the cloak on the ground, but Cole didn't seem to care.

Cole was wearing what looked to be the same attire as Jaune, but his armor was slightly different. Instead of the pure white chest piece and pauldrons, Cole was wearing a set of dark blue armor. His chest piece was slightly larger than Jaune's, and had armor plates reaching down to his waist. The sides of his legs had some armor plates on them as well, attached to his belt and strapped to his thighs to stay in place. He had armor all along his arms as well, covering most of his forearms and the outside of his upper-arms. On his hands, he wore fingerless gloves, like Jaune, but his seemed to have small armor plates on them, with gaps in between to give him full movement in his hands. He wore the same looking hoodie as Jaune, but the inside trim was colored black, instead of orange. He also wore jeans and sneakers, like Jaune.

'No wonder I thought I recognized Jaune at first. He's got similar armor, similar weapons, I guess that was part of what interested me at first.' Pyrrha thought internally as Cole flexed his arms.

"Now, let's see." Cole pulled around the messenger bag he was wearing and took the strap off his shoulder. He placed in on a bench on the sidelines and started rummaging around in it. "Definitely using you." He mumbled as he pulled a sword belt out of his bag, and strapped it around his waist, the sword hanging from his left hip. Ancient looking silver runes run up and down the leather scabbard. The hilt was pretty basic, with the plain cross guard lightly curved toward the blade. The part of the cross guard that faced the blade looked to be sharped as well. The pommel was the fanciest part of the sword visible, adorned with a snarling wolf's head, forged out of dark steel, making it look quite intimidating.

Ruby was a bit surprised that Cole had been able to fit a sword in the smallish looking bag. 'How does that fit in there? I suppose if he put it length-wise, it should just barely fit.'

"Okay, let's use you as well." Cole pulled out another sword belt, and strapped it to his other hip, now sporting two swords, the first being slightly longer than the other. Ruby, being the weapon nerd that she was, identified the first sword as a hand-and-a-half bastard sword, able to be used with either one or two hands. The second was a smaller short-sword, used with only one hand. The second sword was much more basic than the first, looking more like the hilt of Jaunes sword, albeit smaller. It did have a similar looking scabbard, however, leather adorned with silver runes. Thinking he was done there, Ruby started to move over, willing to hold the bag for him, should he need it. What Ruby saw next nearly knocked her to the ground from shock.

Cole was pulling out a large heater shield, a wolf's head emblem adorning the front. The shield was easily twice the height of the bag itself. He strapped it to his back and looked satisfied, but Ruby was not.

"How… Wha…" Ruby was barely able to come up with words, much less full sentences. The rest of the combined teams were flabbergasted as well, save Jaune and Pyrrha, who seemed to think it a common occurrence, people pulling giant shields out of small bags.

Cole turned to face his new friends and laughed. "Never gets old." He chuckled. Jaune gave an annoyed scoff as he was preparing for the fight, stretching lightly. "Come here and look in the bag." Ruby made her way over and peered into the bag, not sure what she expected to see.

What she found was a medium sized room with at least a dozen swords of varying designs and a few shields hanging from the walls, all within the confines of the bag.

"How…" Ruby looked between the bag and Cole a few times. "It's bigger on the inside!?"

Cole chuckled again as the rest of her friends clamored around to see what Ruby meant. All of them looked at Cole, their faces slightly twisted in confusion.

"It's due to a special kind of dust." Cole said, still laughing at their expressions. "When sewn into fabric, such as my bag, it creates sort of like a 'pocket dimension' that is larger than the original bag. My family uses it for tents, too, to make them slightly roomier. I've got one in my luggage, but I likely won't need it much. All of my belongings are in there, if you noticed. I've got my suitcases, my weapons, and a few other things all packed away in there nicely. The only reason my tent isn't in there is it tends to react badly when there is a pocket dimension inside of another pocket dimension."

"Define badly." Yang said, now slightly wary of the bag.

Cole threw his hands out, miming an explosion. "Explosive. Took out a large portion of my family's forge when my great-great grandfather experimented with it."

"How big of an explosion?" Yang asked as she and her team-mates backed away from the bag.

"A couple square miles. It only took out a part of the research area; the main forge is a good ten miles from that specific wing." Cole noticed team RWBY backing away even further from the bag, now looking very worried. "Don't worry. My bag only has a small amount of dust and is in no danger of exploding anyway."

"How big is your family forge? Aren't they usually like one building?" Ruby was intrigued, now really wanting to see Cole's family forge.

"Oh it is. We've only got a smaller 4-bedroom house, but the forge is in the basement. Part of the house, too actually."

"How…"

"Spatial-altering dust, remember? My great-great-great grandfather built the forge with special bricks, made almost entirely out of the stuff. Turned an area that is supposed to be about 30 feet by 30 feet into one that was 30 miles be 30 miles. Or at least pretty close."

Jaune sighed "Are you going to stand there all day explaining your stupid forge, are we going to do this?"

"Jaune, don't be rude to your cousin!" Pyrrha snapped at him.

"No, he's right. I can go into more detail later. Now..." Cole pulled the shield from his back and strapped it to his left arm. "We have a score to settle." Cole walked toward the center of the ring. As he started away from the group, he saw Pyrrha squeeze Jaune's shield arm.

"Keep your guard up. Russell is fast." Jaune nodded as Pyrrha looked at him, concern in her eyes. Jaune turned and jogged a few steps to catch up with Cole. "So what's the plan?" he asked, his full attention now on the upcoming fight.

"Do you know anything about how these two fight?" Cole asked, trying to get as much information on them as possible.

"Russell uses two larger daggers, which use dust to help with his strikes. He's fast, but has less blocking capability than we do. Dove has a long sword with a gun built into the hilt. He likes to stay back at range and provide cover fire to keep you pinned until Russell can get up close." Jaune thought back to Pyrrha's fight against team CRDL.

"Which is the stronger fighter?" Cole asked.

"Russell." Jaune replied. They both stopped on their side of the fight ring, waiting for Russel and Dove to make their way over.

"Okay. I assume they've seen how you fight?" Jaune nodded "Alright. If they're smart, Russell will come after me first, leaving Dove to keep you occupied. They have no idea what I'm like, so I'll be their main focus. Do you think you can handle Dove?"

"Pretty sure. Pyrrha uses her rifle to try and keep me on the defensive all the time in training." Jaune nodded with a small smile.

Cole got a light twinkle in his eye, an almost predatory grin crossing his face. "Really, what else does she do in training?"

Jaune recognized his cousin's taunting and lightly punched him in the shoulder "Cut it out. We're just partners."

"Right. Partners." Cole nudged Jaune in the side as he said 'partners'.

"Let's just do this." Jaune knocked his cousin's arm away. Russell and Dove stopped on their side of the center ring.

Cole turned to look at them, his face now as serious as it could get. "How about we up the ante? If we win, you stop bullying other people. Not just us or our friends. Everyone."

"And if you lose?" Russell smirked.

"I assume you two struggle a bit in classes?" Russell growled. "If we lose, we'll do your homework for the rest of our time here at Beacon. Deal?" Russell continued to fume at the insult Cole dealt him. "Deal. We expect A's when we're done wiping the floor with you."

"I'm sure you'll have more time to study when you're not out bugging other people." Cole retorted, drawing his sword from his left hip. He heard Ruby squeal from the sideline.

Claiomh Solais was his pride and joy. Being the son of a blacksmith, he took to learning all he could when he decided to become a hunter. He forged his swords himself, and took great pride in their quality. Claiomh Solais was his masterpiece. She was forged from Valearian steel, some of the hardest steel in the entire kingdom, and very difficult to work with. Valearian steel was sometimes referred to as wootz steel. It was characterized by the patterns of discolored metal throughout the blade.

The sword in question had the entire fuller made of Valarian steel, while the edge was forged from more standard steel. The edge did have earth dust forged into it, leaving it just as hard as the Valearian steel supporting it, which was one of the most durable forms of steel known to man, making it a very deadly weapon.

Cole twirled his sword in his hand as Ruby continued to gush to Yang about why Cole's sword was one of the coolest weapons she's ever seen.

Professor Goodwitch stepped in between the two sets of combatants. "This challenge will be handled like a normal practice match. The two pairs will fight until their aura drops into the red. If one of the two combatants loses too much aura, they are out, leaving the other to finish the fight. Are you ready?" She looked between the two pairs of students with their weapons drawn. Both teams nodded. "Then let the match begin!" Glynda leaped backward to leave the boys plenty of room for the fight.

Russell almost immediately charged forward, while Dove started peppering Cole. He charged forward against the force of the rounds and leaped up toward Jaune. "Heads up!" he shouted to Jaune, who glanced toward him, immediately knowing what he had in mind. Jaune maneuvered his shield to act as a platform for Cole to stand on, angling it down slightly, and aiming towards Russell, who was still charging toward them. Just as Cole's feet touched the shield, Jaune threw the shield forward with all of his strength, using his aura to add a little extra power to it.

Cole flew forward, shield outstretched in front of him, hurling directly into Russell, who was only able to shift partially out of the way before being smacked in the chest with Cole's shield. He used his Aura to shield himself, but he was unable to keep from being thrown halfway back across the ring.

Cole bounced off his target, rolled in the air to land on his feet, and skidded to a stop a few feet from the sprawled out Russell. He saw that Jaune had started charging for Dove, who had turned his focus on the blonde. Jaune was using his shield to deflect the projectiles, getting in close enough to use his sword.

Cole turned his attention back to Russell who had only just leaped back up to his feet. Cole raised his shield, inviting Russell to charge, which he gladly did. Just before Russell's blades made contact with Cole's shield, he pulled his arm back and thrust it forward, bashing Russell with it. Cole swiped at Russell's feet with his sword, but Russell was able to dodge, jumping up slightly. Cole bashed Russell again, this time catching him full in the chest. Russell flipped backward into the wall of the combat arena. Cole had enhanced his shield bash with his aura, crashing through Russell's own shield of aura. He groaned slightly, but was still in the fight as his aura was only about half drained from the attack.

Cole decided to let Russell recoup himself here in the corner and turned to see Dove holding Jaune at bay. Jaune was swiping and slashing almost wildly at Dove, each attack being blocked by Dove's weapon. Cole rushed over to help Jaune, aiming a powerful over the shoulder slash at Dove. He was able to roll out of the way, just barely seeing Cole out of the corner of his eye. Dove reached out his free hand and a ball of aura exploded from it, landing against Cole's raised shield.

A flash emitted from the ball, almost blinding him, even around the shield he used to protect himself. He waited a few seconds for his eyes to clear, expecting Dove to attack him, but when his vision returned to normal, he saw Dove standing over Jaune, sword raised to finish him off. Cole dove forward and blocked the attack with his shield, surprising Dove.

Russell rushed up to support his partner, encircling Cole. He heard Jaune groan and clutch at his face. He had caught the full of the flash emitted from Dove's aura, so he was likely to be incapacitated for the remainder of the fight.

Cole loosened his grip on his shield strap and threw his arm out to the side, his arm slipping out from the straps. "Pyrrha, catch!" He threw it in her general direction, and then returned his attention to the two boys circling Cole. They were about to charge in, seeing him throw his shield to the side, but he pulled his other sword from its place on his right hip, giving them pause.

Pyrrha used her semblance to slightly alter the trajectory of the shield, and caught it lightly. She continued to watch the match from the sidelines, now smirking even more at her old partner's change in tactics.

Cole ran forward at his opponents, then spun around counter-cockwise, arms outstretched, raking his swords against their hastily thrown up defense. He stopped his spin and used the remaining momentum to bring his right arm around, knocking one of Russell's weapons to the side. He lashed out with his foot, tripping the boy while fending off Dove's long sword on the left. As soon as the boy started to topple backwards, Cole spun around again, clockwise this time, and brought his sword around to Dove's undefended side, catching him in the leg.

Dove's aura protected him, but the momentum of the blade made him lose his balance, and also toppled back. Cole placed the tips of his swords in the center of the boys' chests, and stopped. They both dropped their weapons, knowing they were defeated, but Cole held his weapons at their chests a few moments longer.

Cole's focused expression changed to one that could make an Ursa whimper. Swords still pinning the pair to the ground, Cole leaned down between them and hissed "If you ever torment my cousin again, I will run you through without hesitation." They both looked up at the face of pure hatred focused on them. They both nodded, too terrified to speak. He leaned back up and sheathed his swords. "I expect you to honor our agreement." Again they nodded, still in fear of the new student. Cole moved over to Jaune to check on him. Grabbing his arm, Cole yanked him up and started to guide him back to their side of the ring.

Professor Goodwitch made her way over to the students. "It would appear the winners by submission are Jaune Arc and Colby Blu."

Cole turned to face Professor Goodwitch, a light smirk on his face, having returned to his usually chipper self. "Professor, come on. Call me Cole."

**Author's Note: This was my first combat scene, so tell me how I did, and hopefully if I messed anything up, I'll get it right next time. If you're curious about what Valarian steel is, It's basically Damascus steel. I really liked the look of it, so i decided to use it in Cole's primary sword.**

**I think next chapter we'll have one of the more important events in the story happen, so be sure to keep an eye out for that. **

**(Don't forget to Rate/Review and Follow/Favorite to stay up to date on A Simple Soul. See if you can find all the references/easter eggs!)**


	8. Chapter 8: An Interesting Greeting

**AUTHORS NOTE: This takes place the same day as A New Student, the Monday after the dance. The next chapter will be the same. We are coming up on the point where I jumped ahead, as it's only about a week from this arc. This is a bit of a short chapter to set up for the next couple, but I thought it was kinda funny.**

**UPDATE 10/2/14: So I extended the chapter a bit. I thought it felt too short and I wrote the next one short as well, so I said 'Fuck it, make them the same cahpter'**

Cardin stared at the new kid all throughout the fight, thinking he recognized him from somewhere, but just couldn't tell where. Once the fight ended, the new guy turned to Professor Goodwitch and told her to call him Cole.

The second Cardin heard that name, his insides froze, then boiled. He knew he recognized this guy from somewhere, and now he knew where. He left the arena, storming past a confused Sky, and went to the training room to do the one thing that calms him down: beat stuff up.

* * *

"That was great, as always. You really shouldn't have left Russell, though. If you had taken him out of the match, you and Jaune would have been able to overpower Dove." Pyrrha as always, complimented his fight, but berated him at the same time.

"I'm not going to hit someone who's already on the ground, defenseless. It's just not right." Cole shrugged, dumping Jaune onto a bench Pyrrha moved over to make sure he was alright.

"Well, that's a good way to start off the day. Not sure what to do now, though." Cole said, clapping his hands together.

"Well, all teams are supposed to have missions today, so I'm not really sure either." Ruby

"Perhaps you could take some time to fill in the fork sized holes in the cafeteria?" All the students jumped when they heard the calm voice of Professor Ozpin sneak up behind them.

"Heh yeah about that…" Cole scratched the back of his neck.

"Don't worry; the janitorial staff have already fixed it. I do, however have something for you to do. First, I recommend team JNPR gives you a brief tour of the campus. You will return to the auditorium with them for mission assignment. I already have a mission in mind for both teams JNPR and RWBY, however, so you will meet in my office after the announcement. Am I understood?" Everyone nodded, including Jaune, who was still lying on the bench, slightly blinded still from the match. "Excellent. Run along now."

The group of friends filed out of the combat arena, Pyrrha and Cole supporting Jaune who was still not able to fully see. Cole tugged him from Pyrrha's side to make him walk face first into a pole, then laughed hysterically at his cousin.

Proffessor Ozpin looked on, sipping his hot chocolate with a slight smirk on his face. As Glynda moved up to stand just beside him, he said "Not even here one day and he is already fitting in nicely."

"I think he's already infinitely worse than the other one. Why do we have to have TWO Arcs at this school? One is bad enough. You do remember what Hunter was like."

"Yes. His joke about how he was the one and only Hunter at Beacon was quite humorous, you must admit." Ozpin smirked once again as he remembered his old classmate.

"No wonder the two of you got along so well. You both infuriate me to no end." Glynda said, crossing her arms.

"I'll always remember that day with the pogo sticks." Ozpin raised his head slightly, pretending to be lost in a fond memory, while Glynda stormed off once again.

* * *

"And this is our room. All dorms are fairly standard, but you are allowed to hang posters or add small touches here and there to make your room more comfortable." Pyrrha led Cole into their shared dorm, followed by Nora, Ren, and a slightly disoriented Jaune.

"So the dorms are co-ed?" Cole gave Jaune his famous 'I'm going to taunt you for weeks' glance, then continued. "What goes on at night?" Pyrrha started to answer, then got slightly flustered as the meaning of Cole's question sunk in.

Nora leaped onto her bed and started bouncing. "Ren and I boop all the time!" All three of her teammates shouted at her "NORA!"

Pyrrha spoke up, having recomposed herself. "We really just do homework and sleep. We shower in the locker rooms, so nothing indecent happens."

"Really? Who sleeps where?" Cole moved to the end of the far right bed. "Jaune and Pyrrha here," Cole then pointed to the far side of the room to the other bed. "and Nora and Ren over there?"

Pyrrha gave him a glare that was all too common when Cole was around: her famous 'why do I put up with you' glare. Ren sighed and collapsed onto his bed, while Nora giggled, still bouncing on her own. Jaune did his best to stutter out a response that sounded like "That's not how it is!" but Cole could never really tell.

Lucky for Jaune, Cole's tormenting stopped when the team heard a screech come from across the hall, followed by a joyous shout of "ZWEI!"

"Is that…" Cole pointed his thumb over his shoulder, but before he could finish, he was interrupted by more shouting.

"HE SENT A DOG!?" "IN THE MAIL!?"

"RWBY lives right across the hall from us. You kinda get used to their weirdness after a while, especially after living with Nora." Jaune responded nonchalantly.

"Hold on…. Who sent a huh in the whatnow?" Cole said, not believing what he had just heard.

"Want to go find out?" Nora said, hopping down from her bed.

"Sure, why not." Cole said, now very curious as to what was going on across the hall. Nora opened the door, followed by the rest of team JNPR and Cole, then knocked on the door opposite theirs.

Yang opened the door, and smiled at everyone. "Oh hey guys. What to come in?" Nora skipped past her then froze at the sight she saw. She ran straight at the stout little corgi waddling around the room and grabbed him into her arms, stroking him behind the ears. "A PUPPY! HE'S SO CUTE! Not as cute as a sloth, of course but still; SO CUTE!" Nora squealed. "Pyrrha, want to hold him?"

"No, thank you. I'm more of a cat person." Pyrrha responded.

"Finally, someone with sense." Blake said, currently hiding behind the bedpost of Ruby's bunk-bed.

Cole leaned over to whisper to Pyrrha. "I know you said you could personalize your room, but isn't that going a little overboard?" Cole pointed at the bunk beds. "I mean, that rope is doing literally nothing to support it."

"Don't bother. Team RWBY is a weird bunch, but they are nice regardless." Pyrrha whispered back.

"All first year students, please report to the amphitheater." Professor Goodwitch's voice came over the loudspeaker. Everyone began to file out of the room, Nora being dragged away from the puppy by Ren, leaving Ruby alone with Zwei to hatch and execute her harebrained scheme.

* * *

Cole stood next to Jaune during the speech, only paying slight attention. As it ended, team RWBY was pulled aside to be briefed on their mission. JNPR and Cole stood waiting for their briefing.

As they waited, Sun and Neptune walked over to the group. "Sup losers. Hey where's Blake?" Sun looked between the members of team JNPR.

Cole snorted lightly. "Well it's nice to meet you too." He swished his monkey tail with his arms crossed.

"Excuse the ape; he must not have seen you." Neptune's face paled as he saw the tail. "I...I didn't… I mean…" He began to stutter.

Cole laughed at the blue-haired boy's discomfort. "Don't sweat it. You can call me Cole."

"Sun. The guy currently dislodging his foot from his mouth is Neptune." Sun replied for Neptune due to his still stumbling over his words.

"Cool." Cole noticed Sun's tail and his face brightened up slightly. He grinned, then walked over to stand a foot from Sun. He saw Sun was smiling as well. Both boys whirled back their fists and punched each other in the groin, fast enough that no one knew what was going on. They both flared their auras lightly to protect themselves, but they still keeled over, grabbing their crotches.

Neptune and Pyrrha both stooped down to help their respective friends, both very confused as to what just happened. "What the hell?" Neptune yelled at Sun.

Sun grunted lightly as he stood up with Neptune's help. "Don't worry bout it."

Pyrrha glared at Cole, waiting for him to explain. "Guy thing." Was the only response she got from him.

Jaune looked very confused. "Ah, how come…"

"Okay, guy monkey thing. Call it a show of friendship." Cole responded.

"Can you explain friend for me, then? I don't really see how punching each other in the gonads is a show of friendship." Neptune looked at Sun for a response.

"Like he said; Guy monkey thing. Chill out mom." Sun chuckled at his friend.

Professor Goodwitch's voice came over the school's loudspeaker system. "Team JNPR, Mr. Blu, report to Professor Ozpin's office for your mission briefing."

Ren gave a slight smirk "What is it, my birthday?"

All his friends burst out laughing at the stoic boy's comment, the nut-punching incident all but forgotten.

* * *

"Your task will be to reach a village approximately three days walk from here, and retrieve a relic I have left in their care." Jaune and Cole sat across from Professor Ozpin, listening to what they would be doing while other teams where off running missions. The remaining three members of team JNPR were waiting just outside.

"That's it?" Cole scrunched his face up in a mix of confusion and suprise. "Honestly, from what I've heard of Beacon's teaching methods, I expected you to have me hunt down some nonexistent smart-Grimm. Something a little harder than picking up your dry-cleaning."

"The village is a three days walk through the forest, to the north. The area is quite over-run with Grimm, so it will likely take you longer to reach the village. You and team JNPR will have one week to reach the village." Ozpin smirked. "And just for that remark, you will be fetching my dry-cleaning for the month after you return."

"Oh come on, I..." Ozpin raised an eyebrow, practically begging Cole to continue so that he could extend the sentence. Cole snapped his jaw shut, not wanting to anger the headmaster any further.

"Is it common to have an initiation last a full week?" Cole asked, wanting to get the subject back to his mission.

"Not quite, however if you are to enter this school part way through the year, I expect you to perform at a higher level than the beginning of the year. Not to mention, I expect great things from those descended from the Arc bloodline." Ozpin's stare bore through Cole, while Jaune slumped slightly in the seat next to him.

"What am I allowed to bring on this test?" Cole asked, trying to find any loop-holes he could exploit.

"You may take whatever you believe will be necessary. You may visit the storeroom should you require extra provisions. You may take one item issued by the school, be it a vehicle, a weapon, anything. The rest of what you take with you, save any necessary provisions, are provided by you. You are also allowed to use any possible resources or assets you come across in the forest." Ozpin gave a knowing look to Cole, which he couldn't really decipher.

Cole thought a moment. "I'll take the current map data from the library. Not the basic version on the scrolls. I want the detailed topographical maps that have the approximate strength and location of all known Grimm in the area."

Ozpin smiled lightly. "Very well. Visit the library when we are finished here, and I will have the staff update your scroll's map." Ozpin turned to face Jaune.

"Mr. Arc, I must ask you to refrain from helping Mr. Blu unless he is in dire need of assistance or requests it. Defending yourself and your team is your first priority. This is, after all, his test. I have no doubt he will require assistance, however."

"I understand, professor." Jaune's look was serious, but still worried.

"Very good. Prepare yourselves, and meet me at the Beacon cliffs in one hour." Ozpin turned to look at Cole, once again with a knowing look on his face. "I suggest you pack as many provisions as you can into your bag, as you may need them. Dismissed."

Jaune and Cole got up from their seats and made their way through the door. "What was that about?" Jaune asked Cole.

"What was what about?" Pyrrha asked, making her way toward them, Nora and Ren right behind.

"Ah... Nothing. We'll need to pack some provisions. Enough for a week at least." Cole said. "I'd say we should each have at least a small pack to make sure we can survive on our own for some time if necessary. The rest I'll pack into my bag. I'll also grab my tent so that we will have some protection at night. Knew I brought that along for a reason."

* * *

JNPR and Cole had collected everything they would need for the mission, each member of JNPR carrying a small rucksack on their backs. Cole had strapped a bundle of canvas to the top of his messenger bag, and had shortened the straps to keep the bag closer to his person.

Ozpin stood overlooking the cliffs, Glynda standing behind him, consulting her scroll. He turned around and beckoned Cole to stand on some sort of metal platform. He dismissed it as a tradition for initiation, and stood on it.

"You will be traveling through a portion of the forest that will be heavily populated with Grimm of all kinds. Take extreme caution, as this is not a training exercise. This is taste of what your actual missions will be if you graduate and become full huntsmen. No teachers will be around to help you, so you must rely on yourselves."

"Now, team JNPR, this bullhead here will drop you in the forest near where Mr. Blu will land." Glynda spoke up, motioning to a landed bullhead airship next to the cliff's edge.

"So do I get a separate bullhead or…" Cole started to look slightly worried, not liking how the professor had said 'land'.

Professor Ozpin gave a slight smirk as he stepped to the side. Team JNPR started to board the waiting bullhead. What troubled Cole was how hard Jaune was trying to stifle a laugh. Cole knew from experience, something was going to happen. Just as he heard a light click, Cole looked down and realized what he was stood upon.

Cole looked up and sighed. "Oh. Fu…." And with that, he was launched into the forest.

* * *

Cole flailed around for a moment, trying to get into a stable position. He spread his arms and legs out, steadying himself. He reached his right arm around and brought his bag to rest in front of him. He began to drift in that direction, but he paid no attention to it.

Opening his bag, Cole plunged his arm in, searching for something. Finding it, he gave a quick shout of triumph. "Aha! There you are!" Cole pulled out his shield, keeping a firm grip on the straps.

As he pulled his shield out, he began to drift to the left, having increased the wind resistance on his right side. He quickly reached his arm behind him, latching his shield in place on his back. He closed his bag and moved it back to rest behind him, then returned his arm to its former position, waiting for the ground to get closer.

* * *

"You do know that Mr. Blu was launched in the general direction of where team RWBY isoperating, correct?" Glynda checked her scroll, looking for RWBY's scroll signatures.

"I'm very much aware, yes." Ozpin took a sip from his mug of hot cocoa.

"What was team RWBY's mission again?" Glynda was now very suspicious.

"A nearby village has a Grimm infestation problem." Ozpin said, turning to face Glynda. "They have been tasked with thinning the Grimm in the area."

Glynda brought up her map, searching the direction Cole was thrown. "But the only village for a few hundred kilometers that way is…"

"Yes, it is." Ozpin sipped his mug of cocoa once more.

"Why do you have to be so cryptic?" Glynda asked, very annoyed at her former team-mate.

"I find it makes life more interesting. Don't you?" Ozpin smirked as Glynda once again stormed away from the one man in the world that could effectively push her buttons.

* * *

Team JNPR stood in the cargo hold of the Bullhead, the pilot keeping pace with Cole's descent toward the forest. Each member had an arm up, holding onto the hand holds hanging within reach. Nora, being just too short to reach her handle, was holding onto Ren's arm.

"You do know he's not slowing down enough right?" Ren looked between Pyrrha and Jaune, slightly worried.

"He'll be fine." Pyrrha replied.

"He's falling." Ren said, watching as Cole reached the apex of his flight, then started to descend toward the forest.

"Don't worry. Unlike some people" Pyrrha elbowed Jaune in the side, just under his ribcage. "Cole has a landing strategy. Not one I'd use, but it works."

* * *

As Cole started the downward arch of his journey, he twisted himself around, back to the ground. He maintained the spread-eagle position for a good 20 seconds then curled his arms and legs into himself, forming a ball.

Because he took the time during his upward arch to attach his shield to his back, he was now a human cannon ball, able to withstand hitting some of the smaller branches.

As he started to feel the thin, flexible branches push against his shield, he started to flare his aura, forming a secondary shield both inside and outside his physical shield. The outer shield gave him slightly more protection for when he hit the larger branches, allowing him to crash right through some of the thickest parts of the trees. The inner layer helped cushion his back, so that Cole would not die on impact.

The pressure against his aura and shield was increasing, meaning the branches where getting larger. Cole peaked down from his position, trying to gauge how far he was from the ground. He was still about 40 meters from the ground, meaning he would impact in about 5 seconds.

Cole counted to three, then flared his aura to form as strong a shield as he could. He impacted the ground hard, but because of his aura, he was chewing through the forest floor, using the resistance to slow down. Cole slowed to a full top nearly 10 meters from his initial impact point, carving a massive gash into the dirt.

Cole released his aura, dissipating all the shields he had formed to prevent him becoming a pancake on the forest floor. He flopped his limbs out, staying on the ground, panting quite heavily.

JNPR jumped from the bullhead from its hovering position, just a few meters over the forest floor. Pyrrha landed in a three point crouch, Ren used Stormflower to spiral down a tree, Nora cannon-balled into the ground, and Jaune fell flat on his face, flaring his aura to protect him just before he hit the ground.

Nora got up from her own mini-crater and walked over to Cole, standing over his head. Lightly rapping him in the forehead with her knuckles, she said "Wake up lazy bum! We have Grimm to kill!"

**AUTHORS NOTE: Fun Fact: male Guinea bonobos often greet each other by hugging or diddling each other. I decided to go for a less weird greeting, though, hence the ball-punching.**

**Anyway, the next few chapters will have RWBY and JNPRs missions, as well as Cole's initiation. Fun will be had, as well as more combat, so stay tuned.**

**You may have noticed, I've started naming chapters as well. I couldn't come up with anything for a while, but I came up with the scheme I've got where it starts with "A" or "An" and then mentions something interesting in the chapter. Hopefully, I can come up with names for chapters while writing, but I may hold off on naming them if I can't think of anything.**

**If anyone wants to help me by proofreading these before they go up, shoot me a PM as my friend who usually proofreads is focusing on school more, so I could use a second pair of eyes. I'm also not great at combat or romancy parts, so I may need some tips or even help writing some of those scenes.**

**(Don't forget to Rate/Review and Follow/Favorite to stay up to date on A Simple Soul. See if you can find all the references/easter eggs!)**


	9. Chapter 9: An Airborne Primate

_Nora got up from her own mini-crater and walked over to Cole, standing over his head. Lightly rapping him in the forehead, she said "Wake up lazy bum. We have Grimm to kill!"_

The group of students walked in a roughly north direction, hoping to make some good time toward the village before needing to stop and rest.

Pyrrha was currently yelling at her partner for his apparent lapse in judgment. "Why did you let Nora pack our bags?! You know she would just put syrup and pancake mix in them!" Pyrrha was mad, but she knew it was an honest mistake. They had each been assigned to assemble necessary provisions for the trip, and Jaune had decided that the person who eats only pancakes was the best choice to pack their bags with food.

"Honestly, it's not that bad. I packed enough food for all of us for a month in my bag. I guess Ozpin saw this coming. I'm now VERY glad I listened to him. Plus, I packed some basic camp cookery, so we may actually be able to make pancakes." Cole shrugged, gesturing to his bag.

"YAY!" Nora bounced around Ren with joy. "I knew I could count on you!" Nora smiled widely at Cole.

"You know, it's really convenient your bag breaks the laws of physics and can hold all this stuff without adding mass to it. Some would say too convenient." Ren grabbed a hold of Nora by the shoulders to stop her bouncing.

"You say convenient, I say scientifically justified." Cole replied, shrugging. "Wait, don't you store Stormflower in your sleeves? How's that work, hmm?" Cole turned to face Ren, who merely shrugged, conceding the conversation. "Oh well." Cole turned around again, continuing to walk north.

Cole pulled out his scroll and projected the map in front of him, hoping to get his bearings. "It looks like there is an old stone tower in the area. If we can find that, we can track where we are going more accurately on the map." Cole closed the scroll, then looked to Pyrrha. "You mind?" Cole asked as he pointed up.

"Not at all." Pyrrha pulled her shield from her back, then positioned herself so that Cole could stand on her shield. They both pumped aura into their legs, giving them extra power, then Pyrrha launched herself upward, Cole doing the same mere seconds after her.

Cole was launched quite high into the air, then channeled some of his aura to his shoulders. His aura manifested and formed dark blue wings, sprouting from his shoulder blades. He glanced around quickly, spotting the tower just as his aura started to sputter from the exertion of keeping him aloft.

Cole allowed himself to fall back down, flaring the aura in his shoulders again just before hitting the ground. He slowed enough to land in a crouch, then straightened up to look at his friends, three of which were marveling at the display he just put on, one was just staring at him quizzically.

"What? The tower looks to be a few kilometers that way." Cole pointed toward where he saw the tower, slightly west of their previous path. "If we move now, we should get there just before nightfall. We can camp there, then move on in the morning." Cole began walking in the direction he had pointed in, snapping JNP out of their daze to follow him.

"You never told me you could FLY!" Pyrrha jogged up next to Cole and slugged him in the shoulder, quite hard.

"I can't." Cole replied, lightly rubbing the assaulted shoulder. "Manifesting those wings draws too much of my aura to maintain them for more than a few seconds. I need to get better control over my aura before I can really fly. Even then, I doubt I could maintain it for more than a few minutes."

"When you do, can you carry me around? It'll be like the name of that awesome song that Ren likes to listen to!" Nora materialized in front of Cole, facing him while walking backwards.

"Flight of the Valkyries." Ren confirmed.

"Right, that one!" Nora was practically jittering with anticipation.

"We can try it. It may be a LONG time before I have enough control to fly, especially if I'm carrying you at the same time." Cole replied, laughing to himself at Nora riding him like a bird.

"So does this make you a flying monkey? You know, like from that one movie with the 'Lions and tigers and bears; Oh my!' I love that movie." Jaune shot a smirk at Cole.

"Don't mention the flying monkeys. Those things are creepy and evil." Pyrrha glared at Jaune.

"He's got a point though, Pyrrha. I'm a monkey that can fly, even if it is for just a few seconds." Cole grinned at her.

"STOP IT!" Pyrrha glared murderously at Cole.

"Okay, okay, fine." Cole raised his hands in defeat as he continued to walk through the forest. He then turned slightly to the side to whisper in Jaune's ear. "Seriously though, who's scared of flying monkeys?"

"Thank you." Pyrrha sighed, relieved her friends decided not to taunt her for her weird fear.

Cole returned his attention to the path ahead of them. With his focus now back to the forest, he heard what sounded like Grimm, fighting quite far from their current position. His tail twitched, and he held up his hand to stop the group.

"What is it?" Jaune said, not understanding why Cole had stopped.

"Hush. I think I hear…" Just as Cole was about to finish the sentence they all hear the loud bang of a high powered gun. "Hunters! This way!" Cole drew his sword and shield and rushed into the tree line in the direction of the gunshot. JNPR followed suit.

As they neared the location of the fight, they heard other sounds of battle, metal scraping on Grimm armor, roars from various Grimm, namely beowolves and ursa. There were also more gunshots; from the sound of them, three different guns had been fired multiple times in the past minute.

Cole and company saw a clearing ahead of them, and charged forward, ready to help in any way they could.

As they breached the tree-line, Cole saw a few things. Many of them were dead Grimm, already smoking and dissolving. The other four things he saw were a few familiar faces.

"Hey, what are you guys doing here?" Ruby piped up, collapsing Crescent Rose and storing it on her back.

**Author's Note: So this chapter is pretty short. I decided to cut it where I did for the cliffhanger. I'll finish the chapter after this and put it out pretty quickly, I just need a few hours to figure out what I'm doing.**

**(Don't forget to Rate/Review and Follow/Favorite to stay up to date on A Simple Soul. See if you can find all the references/easter eggs!)**


	10. Chapter 10: A Tale of Two Teams

"What are we doing?! What are you doing?" Cole nearly shouted, waving his sword and shield around in disbelief.

"We're on our mission. There's a village to the north that has been assaulted by Grimm lately, so we were told to thin their numbers on our way to the village." Ruby shrugged, gesturing north.

"Wait. Ozpin sent you on a mission to a village to the north?" Cole asked as he sheathed his sword.

"Yeah. Why?" Ruby asked, a look of confusion on her face.

Cole brought out his scroll and summoned up the map once more. He zoomed out slightly then pointed to the holographic representation of a village. "This one here?"

Ruby moved around to see the map better. "Mhmm. Looks like it. Why?"

Cole closed the scroll again, then looked to Jaune. "You have GOT to be kidding me!"

Jaune looked puzzled for a moment, then realization dawned on him. He keeled over in laughter, followed by Cole.

"Um, what?" Ruby's confusion grew, making her tilt her head to the side, scrunching her nose up.

"Ozpin sent me to retrieve a relic from a village to the north as my initiation." Cole bent back down in anther fit of laughter. "That cheeky bastard!"

Ruby looked confused for a few moments more, then started laughing as well.

"What is going on?!" Yang yelled, fed up with everyone knowing more than she did.

"My initiation is to retrieve a relic from a village in the north. Your mission is to clear Grimm on the way to a village in the north." Cole opened the map once more. "How many villages are north of our position?" All of teams RWBY and JNPR looked at the map. "One. Which means that we are technically on the same mission." Cole turned to Jaune. "Remember what he said after I asked what we could bring along?"

"Huh?" Jaune looked at Cole in confusion again.

"We are allowed to use any resources or assets we come across in the forest." Cole recited.

Recognition once again lit up Jaune's face. "I would certainly say Ruby and her team are assets." Jaune thought, considering the tactical boost team RWBY would provide.

"Hey bub, you're talking about my sister there!" Yang extended Ember Celica, ready to punch Jaune hallway to the village.

Weiss sighed. "Asset is a term the military commonly uses to describe troops or equipment. He means that we are supposed to join forces to complete our missions."

"Precisely." Cole smiled at Weiss, while she huffed and crossed her arms.

"In that case, what's the plan?" Blake asked.

"Well, it's getting dark, so we'll need somewhere to set up camp. I spotted a stone tower over in that direction" Cole pointed to the north west as Pyrrha grumbled about 'stupid flying monkeys' "Which should be pretty defensible. I say we camp there for the night and figure out a plan from there."

"Sounds good to me." Ruby cheered. "Let's go!"

* * *

The two teams made their way toward the tower, running across more Grimm along the way. With the combined power of nine huntsmen-in-training, the clusters of Grimm stood little chance against them.

As they reached the tower, the moon just started to rise in the east, with the sun peeking over the horizon in the west.

"Right. There should be some shelter near the top, which will provide some protection from any Grimm that decide to go hunting tonight." Cole said, pointing to the top of the tower.

The two teams started to climb the built-in staircase running the entire way up the tower, occasionally having to stop, due to some of the older bricks crumbling or coming loose.

As they reached the top, everyone was exhausted. Everyone picked a corner of the tower and tossed their bags down. Everyone pulled out the thin blanket they were to use as mattresses for the night and began to get comfortable.

"I'll take first watch. We should keep at least one of us awake to make sure we aren't ambushed by a murder of nevermore." Pyrrha spoke, taking position in one of the decently sized windows dotted around the tower.

"I'll join you." Cole said, moving over to sit in the window with her. "You guys get some rest. We've still got quite a ways to go to get to the village, and the Grimm will not be making it easy for us. Jaune, Ruby, you guys okay taking the next shift?"

"Sure. Wake me up when you start getting tired." Jaune said, stretching out on his blanket. Ruby nodded, then instantly fell asleep as she laid down on hers.

"Alright. See you in a few hours." Cole said.

* * *

After about five minutes, everyone had fallen asleep, save for Cole and Pyrrha, who kept their eyes scanning the forest and skies around them. They sat in silence, keeping watch for another hour before Cole spoke.

"Soooo…. About Jaune…." Cole said slowly, glancing over at Pyrrha.

"What about him?" Pyrrha asked guardedly.

"Well for one thing, I know you like him." Pyrrha's eyes grew wide in shock, starting to deny it, but deciding not to waste the energy. "I also think he likes you. He's a bit hard to read, though." Cole continued.

Pyrrha scowled slightly. "Really? Even you can't tell with him?"

"Most things, I can. I think it's something to do with him hiding it better. If I had to wager a guess, I'd say he knows you are interested, but thinks he's not worth your time, and shouldn't even bother. Certainly fits with his usual stubbornly pessimistic personality." Cole frowned, gauging Jaune's relationship with Pyrrha that he's seen.

"That does certainly sound like him. No matter how strong he gets, I think he's always going to think less of himself." Pyrrha mused. "Wait, why do you think he knows? He seems to think that I'm just being a good friend and partner."

"I know Jaune. He's a brilliant tactician, like many of the Arcs before him. He spots anything that seems to be amiss and analyzes it, usually figuring something out in seconds. I have never successfully pranked him before." Pyrrha looked somewhat shocked at this, as she has been on the receiving end of more than a few of her old partners antics, never once being able to predict them.

"He did have us take out the deatstalker from initiation pretty easily." Pyrrha thought back to their own initiation, remembering how Jaune seemed to notice the deathstalker's weaknesses immediately, and knew precisely how to exploit them.

"What I want to know is why." Cole said, locking eyes with Pyrrha.

"What?" Pyrrha gave him a confused head tilt.

"Why do you like Jaune? Is it the family name, the looks; what?" Cole shifted slightly in the window to be facing Pyrrha full on, not out the window.

"I... I don't know really. He didn't know who I was when we first met, so that may have helped. You should have some idea what my fame has done to my social life. It also helps that he is kinda and loyal to his friends."

"Yeah, I kinda do." Cole replied.

"So you're not angry?" Pyrrha asked.

Cole scoffed lightly. "Why should I be? It's not like I control your love life. Or his."

"Well, no, but after that one time during third year…." Pyrrha started to say, before Cole cut her off.

"That is in the past. It wouldn't really work out anyway. Besides, Jaune's a much better partner for you than I could ever be." Cole voice fell, losing almost all it's confidence.

"That sounds just like an excuse Jaune would use." Pyrrha said, pursing her lips, not too happy with her friend putting himself down.

"Yeah, except it's a bit truer for me." Cole's voice lowered further,

Pyrrha sighed lightly. "You two are so alike I'm surprised you aren't actually brothers. Jaune reminded me of you, when I first met him. I think that was part of the initial attraction, too, but I can't be sure."

Cole chuckled slightly. "Flattery gets you nowhere, Pyrrha, you should know that by now."

"Oh hush you. It's been a few hours. You think we should switch shifts?" Pyrrha asked.

Cole yawned lightly. "Might as well. You wake lover boy, I'll take Ruby." Cole hopped down from the window sill and moved over to wake his team-mate, chuckling when he saw she slept cradling Crescent Rose.

He lightly grabbed her shoulder, giving her a gentle shake to wake her up. "Hey, your turn to be bored for a few hours. Come on." Cole jumped back before the unfurling of Crescent Rose took his arm off.

"What!? Oh sorry." Ruby replied, sheepishly collapsing her beloved scythe to it's travel mode. "You startled me."

"Remind me never to do that again. Your turn to take watch." He replied, moving over to his blanket and laying down. "If you let a nevermore kill me in my sleep I will be very cross with you."

She laughed lightly, moving over to the window. "I won't, I promise. Night."

"Night." Cole then drifted off to sleep, clutching his bag to him.

**Author's Note: Hey guys, took a little longer that I wanted for this second chapter, but I got it fairly polished in that time. Next chapter I might try to work in another fight scene, but it will definitely have more Cole back story. Exposition will be had, and even more references to to the inspiration for Cole's character. I didn't really have one person in mind while coming up with him, so he's more influenced by a number of things. If you can figure it out, post it in the comments. There's already been one big whopper of a clue in the story, so it shouldn't be too hard.**

**Pretty soon I'll post a character sheet for Cole that doesn't have some random notes all over it about what I want to try to do with his character, but I'm trying to commission a piece to give him more of a solid image in people's heads, as I'm not too great with his description.**

**(Don't forget to Rate/Review and Follow/Favorite to stay up to date on A Simple Soul. See if you can find all the references/easter eggs!)**


	11. UPDATE (HAHAHAHA)

UPDATE: Sorry guys, but this will just be a quick (/scoff… right) update. You may have noticed I haven't updated in the past few weeks, at least not since late October, and I wanted to give a bit of an explanation.

The way I write, I usually fuck around playing a game or working and an idea for the story hits me, so I write it down. When I am writing out the current chapter, usually once or twice a week, I decide where stuff goes/what belongs in that chapter then stitch the few pieces I have together by adding filler/whatever comes to mind that lets me connect scenes I have already written. I have a large portion of this chapter written out, but there is a very large, plot centric event that I want to happen in this chapter, or at least a combat scene (plot centric scene requires combat) but I am coming up blank on how to write the combat.

Even so, I am starting to hit a bit of a wall. I would like to finish writing this story and have every intention to, but I am a lazy asshole (I'll admit it) who spends most of his free time fucking around on Reddit/YouTube/whatever game I am playing at the moment, so it's abit hard to focus on one thing for an extended period of time. My plan right now is to try my damndest to finish this plot arc (Cole's initiation/RWBY's mission), which should be another 2-3 chapters, including a tie-up chapter and call it a volume/season after that. I very much want to add in team CFVY and team SSSN, but we have very little on their personalities. I will probably keep Velvet as a timid character, but I would like to keep everyone else's personalities fairly cannon as I am not a very creative person (look at my OC, it's basically me with a monkey tail in Jaune's armor, just with abit more. Hell his backstory is very me-centric) so it helps character-wise to have something to draw from.

I may consider writing fluffy bits that I had in mind already over the break as I have one decent idea I mind, but for the most part, I want to just see if I can get more confidant in my combat-writing ability. I am looking into taking a creative-writing class this semester, which would probably help a great deal.

In the meantime, however I will continue working on getting this arc done. I know what I want to do to end it, I just don't know how to do it, which is annoying to say the least. Rest assured, though: it's a whopper of an ending and some people may want to hunt me down afterwards. I won't spoil it, but I will tell you I have decided how Cole is going to remain a primary character. Primary character you ask? But TPG, you said he was going to be a background character! Yeah well I LIEEEEED! He's going to be pretty important to the story for the foreseeable future, but I will try to focus on other characters as well, and not just him.

Almost forgot. I _REALLY_ jumped the gun with that Chapter X. It'll likely be one of the opening chapter to the next volume/season so consider it to be a teaser for now.

Ciao all!


	12. Chapter 11: A New Plan

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hey everyone. Guess what? New chapter! YAY! I've kinda gotten over my funk, but I'm still writing a little slower. This chapter was going to be MUCH longer, but I decided to just split it into two chapters. There's no combat (again) but I'm trying to set up a more combat filled chapter to compensate. I've really just been skipping over small pack fights as in my mind, the team kinda blazes through most of them pretty quickly and wouldn't make for too awesome a scene.**

**Anyway, read on and I'll meet you at the bottom of the page!**

Two days into the expedition, the team had made good time. Their pace was beginning to slow, however as they had already faced a little over a hundred Grimm in the past few days, and their stamina was draining quite quickly. Despite the setback, they had already walked about 40 kilometers, fighting Grimm and recouping after said fights taking up about half of their day.

"This is starting to get ridiculous. How many Grimm are in this freaking forest?" Jaune grumbled to no one in particular as he rested on a stump.

"Apparently, a few thousand, if you assume the whole forest is as densely packed as this area." Ren replied, crunching numbers in his head while lying against a tree trunk.

"There are a couple thousand, but this section we are traveling seems to be more densely populated. At least that the scout hunters know." Cole said, scrutinizing the map's Grimm data. He was currently sitting on the skull of an ursa he had decapitated.

"You know you're going to fall on your ass when that thing dissipates, right?" Yang said, pointing at the Grimm skull.

"That's actually what I'm counting on. It takes a Grimm an average of 15 minutes to fully decompose, so I'm using it as a timer to tell how long we should be resting. After this we should be able to make another few kilometers before camping for the night." Just as Cole finished his sentence, the skull fully dissipated, dumping Cole onto the grass underneath. "Well that was convenient. Alright everyone, let's move. We shouldn't linger too long in one area anyway."

Everyone started getting up, some dusting themselves off, some reloading weapons. One person in particular returned the book they were reading to some hidden pouch on their person.

"We've still got a few hours before nightfall." Blake said, gracefully leaping down from the tree branch she had occupied for the past half hour. "If we can make another 5 kilometers, we'll have matched our pace from the past two days."

"Right. We should get moving then. Don't want to keep the professor waiting." With that, Cole moved into the tree line, followed by teams RWBY and JNPR.

* * *

About half a kilometer, Jaune somehow managed to trip on a leaf.

Pyrrha rolled her eyes, then shot Cole a questioning look. "How is he able to avoid your incessant pranks while still being the clumsiest person on Remnant?"

Cole rolled his eyes at her question. "I honestly have no idea. I guess it's just one of the universe's natural paradoxes."

"Seems a little convenient to me." Pyrrha mused.

"You can call it convenient, I'll just call it funny." Cole shrugged, smirking lightly.

* * *

After another three kilometers, the group sat down to rest in a clearing, Jaune and Weiss panting quite heavily.

"You would think you'd have better stamina what with all your 'training' with Pyrrha." Cole elbowed his cousin as he sat next to him. Yang burst into laughter while Ruby looked a little confused.

"Why is that so funny? Training usually does increase someone's stamina." Ruby said innocently, looking between Cole and Yang who were snickering at Jaune.

Cole burst into full on laughter while Yang froze. "Yes Ruby, training increases stamina. It's not funny _at all_." Yang turned back to Cole and glared murderously at him, enunciating her last few words to make her point.

Cole stopped laughing but was unable to keep in faint snickering. "Right. Course. Not funny."

"Children." Weiss scoffed. "How far are we from the village now? We certainly made good time today considering all the Grimm we ran into."

Cole pulled out his scroll and projected the map in front of the group, still snickering at his cousin. "We're still about 45 kilometers from the village. If we can walk a few more today, then maintain the same pace, we should be at the village in two days, well within the week time limit."

"I suggest we camp here for tonight and get some extra rest. We can stretch that out to three days easily, so as not to exhaust ourselves. We still don't know for sure what we will face." Ren spoke softly, scrutinizing the map.

"We've got a pretty good idea of the Grimm along the way. According to the map, it's just some pockets of beowolves and ursa, with a pair of nevermore nests not far off track." Cole pointed to various clusters of symbols marking the Grimm in the area.

"Don't forget that deathstalker here. There are also a large number of other pockets that could wander into our path as they move through the area." Blake pointed out.

"If we wait too long, we are likely to be attacked by those same wandering packs anyway. I think we should make our way to the village as fast as possible. While leaving time for breaks, of course." Jaune said, still lightly huffing, but studying the map intently.

"There is also this section here. If we go around it looks like we could avoid a large number of Grimm and make it to the village with less resistance." Pyrrha suggested, pointing to a swath of clear forest about 800 meters from their current position, running clear up to the village, bypassing many of the clusters of Grimm. "It may take some extra time, but if we aren't bogged down fighting Grimm, it could be just as quick as a straight line."

Cole shook his head. "RWBY's mission is to clear as much Grimm in the area as they could, while moving toward the village. I'd like to maintain their mission as much as possible. Kill's two birds with one stone, and makes sure RWBY doesn't get marked down for abandoning their mission." Cole scrutinized the map for a few more moments. "If we skirt the very edge of the Grimm in that area, we can go around while still engaging some of them, clearing the area." Cole pondered. "It's also a possibility that the area is so infested with Grimm that the scout hunters couldn't even get a good read on the area. What do you think, Ruby?" Cole asked, looking to Ruby who was currently devouring a bag of cookies she was try to hide in her bag.

Ruby yelped, quickly closing her pack and looking like a deer in headlights, then studied the map. "Well, we could have a pair scout ahead in that area to see if there are Grimm. If we probe in a little, we could get a better idea of what's there. If we see overwhelming numbers of Grimm, we avoid the area, if not, we go with Cole's plan to skirt the edge of the Grimm. Sound good?"

The group seemed to all agree that getting abit more information on the area would be beneficial. All but Nora, of course who suggested "Let's just smash right through them all!"

"While that is an option, with a few of those nevermore being ultras, as well as the ultra deathstalker, and a number of ursa majors and beowolf alphas, we may not be strong enough to just run the gauntlet." Cole pointed to a number of slightly larger symbols, displaying the greater strength of the Grimm they signified. "If the forest is clear, we can take out the packs along the edge, so we still get to wreck some faces. If not, we still have to fight our way through somewhere. There will be no shortage of Grimm to crush either way."

Nora looked satisfied with the plan, or at least the crushing involved, and nodded.

"Alright. Let's rest a little longer, then start making our way to the edge of that clear area. We can camp for the night, then send a pair to scout the area in the morning. We then decide what to do after we get more info on the clear section." Everyone nodded their understanding of the plan as Cole deactivated his scroll's projector.

* * *

The teams had made it to the edge of the clear patch on the map, and had set up camp for the night. Cole had set up his tent which the group had stayed in the previous night as it was spacious enough to fit all of them with some wiggle room.

Cole was currently making a stew he had assembled from various ingredients he had packed into his bag, over a campfire Jaune and Pyrrha had put together. Everyone sat lounging around the fire on various boulders and tree stumps waiting for the stew to be done.

"You've got to admit it Pyrrha, Nora bringing along so much pancake mix certainly helps. We can fill up in the morning, Snack on some light rations around mid-day, then have a good healthy dinner. Almost makes you regard Nora as a genius." Cole

"Hey!" Nora scowled at Cole while looking somewhat hurt. "Have you been sneaking me healthy junk?!"

"Yeah. It's actually pretty easy to hide certain vegetables, especially if you know how to cook them correctly." Cole smirked at the pouting Nora.

"I do find it interesting that you can cook as well as Jaune." Ren commented as Cole removed the cast iron lid from the pot.

"Yeah. My mom always taught me that an Arc should know 5 basic skills: cooking, dancing, sewing, laundry and fighting." Cole remarked, giving the ingredients a brief stir before covering the pot once more.

Ruby snorted, then exploded in a giggle fit. "You can sew?" She said through her giggles.

"Yeah. It's actually really helpful. You can repair a combat outfit pretty nicely in the field with just a needle and thread. You can also stitch up a wound if needed. I always carry a few sewing supplies in my bag." Cole patted his messenger bag. Ren scoffed faintly at how absurd Cole's bag was.

"Seriously, is there anything you DON'T have in that bag. You got a rabbit tucked away in there somewhere?" Yang joked.

"Hold up, I may actually have one, let me see." Cole rummaged around in his bag for a second, receiving a slightly shocked look from Yang. Cole looked up from his bag smirking. "Of course I don't have a rabbit in there. I've got a stuffed dog though. I call him Biscuit."

Ren rested his face in his hand, followed by Weiss and Blake.

Cole shrugged. "What? It's not like I have a dust processing line in there. Those things are abit clunky, especially the Schnee Corporation models."

"The company dust processing line is a family secret. How do you know anything about them?" Weiss asked, slightly hostile.

"You still don't recognize my name?" Cole asked with a short sigh, quite amused that the heiress hadn't recognized him immediately.

"Should I?" Weiss replied nonchalantly, still unaware as to how his family name was important.

"I'll make it easier for you. Mind if I see Mytenaster for a second?" Cole asked, holding his hand out expectantly.

Weiss glared at him for a few moments gauging whether he would run off with her most prized possession. Deciding he would not, she unsheathed her rapier and handed it to the boy.

Cole took it and immediately his deft fingers separated the blade from the revolver mechanism, taking the blade apart. Weiss started to protest, even club him upside the head for breaking her weapon, then she realized he had fully disassembled her rapier, just like she would to clean and maintain it, only about five times faster.

Cole held up a part of the sword that was usually hidden when fully assembled. "I draw your attention to the smith's mark. You know the name of the company that owns this mark yes?" Cole pointed to what looked like an angular letter B.

"Of course I do. Blue Steel smithing." Weiss replied proudly. "You can easily tell by the angular B."

"Wrong. The B is actually a rune, usually meaning the prosperity of a business venture. Also, it's actually Blu Steel smithing. You're using the wrong inflection. It's a very small distinction, but it makes a difference none the less." Cole smirked.

Weiss gave him one of her world-famous looks of befuddlement. Cole, noticing this, continued.

Cole began reassembling Myrtenaster, taking his time as he reattached the removed pieces. "My family owns and operates the Blu Steel smithing company. Approximately 7 years ago, we received an order for a very unique and high quality rapier, along with schematics and a thorough description of how it was to be forged. Want to take a guess who placed that order?" Cole smirked, handing the fully reassembled Myrtenaster to Weiss.

"How did I not notice that? My father insisted that I be involved in the process of having my rapier forged. Blu Steel is one of the largest smithing companies in Remnant, especially for custom-made huntsman weapons. The quality of the metal is exquisite." Weiss said, mostly to herself.

"You're damn right it is. My father is one of the few remaining people to know the secret to forging Dust into the metal used to make weapons for hunters. We also provide lower quality metal working for various different projects, including Dust-powered airships and some of Atlas's military drones, as well as armaments. He's brokered a business agreement with the Schnee Dust Company, giving them a discount on whatever they require, in exchange for discounted dust. We run through it like crazy on some orders, so it can be a pretty lucrative deal for both parties." Cole said.

"So does that make you the heir to a powerful company as well? When I studied weapon design at Signal, Blu Steel was one of the most renowned forges for the creation of a hunter's weapon. They even provide services to help a hunter craft their own weapon if they aren't as engineeringly adept as some people." Ruby puffed out her chest proudly.

"Uh… I don't think 'engineeringly' is a word." Jaune glanced at Ruby, who seemed to deflate.

"ANYWAY," Weiss interrupted. "How did you know Mytenaster was made by your father's company?" Weiss turned to Cole, curious as to how Cole was involved in her weapon's fabrication.

"Well for one, I helped make it. Not directly, mind you, I was only twelve and wasn't as buff as I am today." Cole gave a mock flex, much to Weiss's disdain. "So I only helped finish the design, with my dad's help, of course. The fact that you use Dust so predominantly in your fighting style meant the blade had to be able to withstand high amounts of energy coursing through it, so I was able to tinker with some dust combinations to find one that would withstand any type of Dust you wanted to throw at it. Usually, if you integrate, for example, ice Dust into a blade, it will be able to withstand the usage of ice Dust till it rusts, which it is VERY unlikely with our blades. If you use fire Dust with it, however, the blade starts to warp and become pretty unstable. The Dust pretty much oozes out of the steel, leaving the blade a bit of a jelly mess." Cole said, wiggling his arm faintly when mentioning the 'jelly mess'

"Steel turns to jelly?" Ruby scrunched her nose up. "How is that possible?"

Cole gestured with his hands slightly. "Because of the Dust being introduced to the metal when it's still being forged, it molecularly bonds with it, so when a blade loses some of those molecules, it makes the steel VERY structurally unstable. The weird bonds that the Dust particles form alters the steel slightly, too. This change make it stronger as long as the Dust isn't removed from the equation. Again, not that easy to do, normally."

"Why is it so difficult to forge steel with Dust in it? Can't you just sprinkle the Dust into the molten metal?" Pyrrha asked, curious as to why it was so hard to produce the special steel.

"You could, if you want to set off the Dust. It also renders that batch of steel completely unusable." Cole replied.

"Why?" Weiss asked. "I'm familiar with how to process Dust, as you might imagine, but the Schnee Corporation doesn't manufacture Dust-infused steel, so I would imagine it's not simple, or something that can be mass produced."

"That's one of the reasons only a few people can actually do it. It's a difficult process to fully explain, and it does require a certain control over Dust. Not just any control, like Weiss has. You have to actually be able to CONTROL Dust to do it. I used the same process when I made my swords. My shield too." Cole patted his shield as he mentioned it.

"But how?" Ruby asked, trying to find out about this forging technique that she knew little about.

"Well, it's because of my semblance. It's…. You know what, I'll just show you." Cole reached into his ever-present messenger bag, surrendering his entire arm to it, rummaging around in its pocket dimension. Cole pulled out a Dust crystal; fire, by the looks of it. "The control you need to forge Dust needs to be down to a molecular level. It's like how Pyrrha can control metal, but abit different." The crystal floated up to rest a few inches above his palm, spinning slowly. "Not only can I move it around in its crystalline and powder states, I can do this."

The crystal suddenly exploded apart, a small cloud of fine grain Dust now floating above Cole's palm in place of the crystal. "I can break it apart and even reform it at will. I can also merge different kinds of Dust to get different effects, which is where the spatial Dust comes from. With it not being a natural form of Dust, it needs to be made, and it's one of the hardest to manufacture. Let me tell you, even when trying to mix an easier compound, it's not like mixing colors. Fire and earth type dust doesn't necessarily make metal Dust. Each grain of dust has similar, but varying properties, and only specific grains can be combined to form specific Dust compounds. It's difficult to describe properly." Cole's face brightened, acquiring an almost evil smirk. "I can also do this."

Most of the Dust particles reformed into a crystal, but about five grains remained, floating in place. Cole gingerly returned the crystal to his bag, then returned his focus to the grains of Dust floating above his palm. With his other hand, he made a crushing motion, causing the particles to collide, exploding in a small puff of fire.

"Also, due to integrating spatial-Dust into my sword, I can use my semblance to do this." Cole unsheathed his sword, and stood back from the campfire. He concentrated, then the hilt of Claiomh Solais began to extend as the blade shrank, quickly forming a spear almost 6 feet long.

"Cooooool." Ruby swooned. "Could you do that to anything?"

"It mostly relies on the spatial-Dust infused into the steel. Having any kind of Dust in the blade gives me some wiggle room, but the spacial Dust let's me change it more without the blade breaking. I can shift it anyway I want, but it takes quite a few seconds, so it's not a great idea to be using it in combat." Cole shifted Claiomh Solais back to its standard length and sheathed it again. "I tend to stick with a spear, though as spears and swords are the two weapons I've been trained with.,"

"You mentioned that your family's smith mark is a rune. Do you know why? I've read that they used to hold some form of importance, but no-one really knows what. You also seem to have runic symbols on your sheaths as well." Blake asked, looking to understand something she's read about a few times in older history books.

"These runes are a tradition my family has followed since before Dust existed. My ancestors, on my dad's side anyway, used to roam the wilds, hunting Grimm and really just surviving. These runes are part of the written language they used." Cole undid his sword belt and displayed the runes on Claiomh Solais's scabbard.

"These runes spell my name, as well as providing a deeper meaning. Each rune means something, as well as being used as a letter in the alphabet. The runes that make up a person's name usually speak to that person's future, or personality. For instance, I is translated to Isa, which is the rune of ice, making Weiss, literally an ice queen." Cole smirked at her, getting a "Hey" in response. "It's true. E is translated to Ansur, which is a representation of the gods, and by extension, royalty. You're name literally is translated as Pethro, Isa, Ansuz, Sowilo, Sowilo. Basically, feminine, ice, queen, victory, flaming sword. If a letter is repeated, it usually means something other than the first." Cole used a stick to scratch rough illustrations of each rune in the dirt.

"Oh oh! Do me next!" Ruby leapt forward, wanting to find out what her name meant. Yang sat to the side, grumbling to herself about underage sisters.

"Alright. Let's see, you are Raido, Eihwaz, Berkano, Eihwaz, which roughly translates to physical journey, honest soul, personal growth, trustworthiness. U and Y share the same rune, but usually have different meanings. The specific positioning of the runes usually changes the meaning of them, so RU is completely different than AU, like in Jaune's name." Again, Cole scratched the runes into the dirt, explaining them as he did.

"Jaune is Jera, Ansuz, Eihwaz, Nauthiz, Ehwaz. Translated, Jaune means success earned, wisdom, dependability, endurance, ideal partnership." Pyrrha blushed slightly, hiding it from the others.

"What do yours mean, then?" Pyrrha asked, wanting to change the subject, knowing full well that Yang would love to use the meaning of that last rune to torment both her and Jaune.

Cole pointed to each rune on his sheathe in turn. "Algiz, Othala, Laguz, Berkano, Eihwaz. Basically, shield, group, life, light of spring, sense of purpose. Runes can have different meanings if reversed, called merkstave runes. The L rune in my name, Laguz, came up reversed, which can mean fear, sickness, confusion in life, or poor decisions. It's very possible if there was a rune reading at your naming, the meanings of your runes would be different. I used the positive meanings for your names."

"What's a rune reading?" Blake asked.

"It's a complicated ritual, and is a family secret so I can't tell you how one is performed. I can tell you that it shows potentially what a person's life will be like. There is another part of the ritual that bonds a person's soul to that of an animal similar to their soul. It was found out that my soul was linked to an animal that used to roam the forests before the Grimm mutated them: the wolf. That's where I get my symbol, the one on my shield." He tapped his shield again, right on the wolf's nose.

"I wonder what my spirit animal would be…" Ruby mused.

"Most likely a puppy hopped up on sugar." Ruby pouted at her partner for her comment.

Cole lifted the pot's lid again to check on the team's dinner. "Well, stew's done. We should probably eat and get some rest."

**Author's Note: Well that was a thing. So, for the runes, I am using elder futhark meanings, but I have switched around the letters some runes are associated with. You get a pretty good idea here with the names. As a heads up, each of these are meant to be at least somewhat prophetic, so I've worked a little bit of foreshadowing into the meanings here. Feel free to speculate, but I will neither confirm or deny. I really only came up with the meanings for the characters listed, but I may come up with the others if prompted. I decided to just involve some of the more fore-shadowy names and skip Blake, Ren, Nora, Pyrrha and Yang. You can find the list of meanings I used here (**** . ****).**

**We're closing in on the final few chapters now. Next chapter will be the scouting and abit after, then a combat chapter (it'll be pretty obvious it's coming with the end of next chapter) then one more then a wrap up chapter. I have decided that I will try and finish off the story before February, and am pretty confidant that I'll be able to. After that, my plan will be to have a few between-volume chapters that will be only somewhat important plot-wise, but I will likely keep those to a one arc run. I haven't decided whether I want to start the next volume with Volume 3 or wait until a few chapters in so I can introduce Neo, the remainder of SSSN and CFVY. I do have an Idea on how I want to write Coco and Velvet, but I could use abit more of their canon personalities to help me build their characters. **

**Anyway, have fun reading and hopefully the next chapter will be out within 2 weeks or so. I'm somewhat concerned about the combat chapter, but I've started on it a little already, so it shouldn't be a total brick wall.**

******(Don't forget to Rate/Review and Follow/Favorite to stay up to date on A Simple Soul. See if you can find all the references/easter eggs!)**


	13. Chapter X: An Old Friend

**Author's Note: So I'm jumping ahead in the story, mostly because I'm a little stuck on the next part, and I wanted to write some Sun x Blake. This chapter, as well as at least the next one, takes place one month after the mech fight in episode 4 of volume 2. I will put a note in the header when I get done figuring out the part that comes before this. There will only be about three or four chapters that take place before this, so I'm not jumping too far ahead. **

Blake sat on her bunk, reading as usual. It had been days since she had some peace and quiet, but she was really lucky today. Ruby and Weiss where both in Vale shopping, and would be gone most of the day. Yang, on the other hand, was still on campus but was otherwise occupied at the practice arena with Neptune.

_'Those two have been spending a lot of time together.'_ Blake mused _'I wonder if that means anything.'_

Blake jumped slightly as she was jolted out of thinking how cute their kids would look by a sudden knocking. The strange part was that the knocking was not coming from the door. As a second knock came from her right, she realized why. A third knock came from the window as she got up and started to make her way toward it. There was only one idiot who would knock on her window, but at least he was a loveable idiot. A smile made its way across her face as she thought about said idiot, but she quickly stifled it, just before opening the window.

"Sun, I thought we told you to stop coming through the window." Blake said, slightly annoyed at her exuberant friend.

Sun was hanging upside down from the tree branch, just outside the window to team RWBY's dorm. He flashed a big smile, and then leapt through the window, landing on his feet right next to Blake. "But I do it all the time. Why can't I just knock once I'm up there?" He grinned even wider, making Blake's small smile return.

"Don't let Weiss hear you say that. She will stuff and mount you and use your tail as a coat rack. Right after she slowly tortures you to death, that is." Blake said, closing the window behind the giant blonde fool.

"She'll have to catch me first." Sun replied as he leapt up onto Yang's bunk, relaxing into it immediately.

"What are you even doing here? Couldn't you be off annoying someone else?" Blake said, arms crossed as she looked up at him making himself at home.

"I could, but with Sage and Scarlet still not here, and Neptune hanging around your partner, I get lonely. What's up with them, anyway?" Sun said, shifting on the bed to lie on his side, facing Blake.

"I honestly don't know, and knowing Yang, I don't want to." Blake said, remembering her overly informative game of truth or dare she had been tricked into playing.

"What's weird is that Neptune hasn't told me anything. Normally, he tells me all about the girls he dates. Not like he does much, but at least he talks about them. I have no clue what is up with him and Yang." Sun said, a small amount of worry crossing his face, and then was replaced with his usual joy.

"Do you think they are actually dating or just hanging out as friends? Maybe there is nothing to talk about, so he has no reason to bring it up." Blake said, sitting down on the side of Weiss's bed.

"You may be right. I'm just a bit worried is all. No real reason to be, but I mean, he is my best friend." Sun said, the slight worry returning to his face for another second. "So what where you doing, and can I join you." Sun said, perking up at the thought of doing something with Blake.

"Well I was reading, but that's out of the question now." Sun looked a bit disappointed, giving her his best 'puppy dog' eyes. Blake sighed and said "I guess we can go for a walk or something."

"Great!" Sun leapt off Yang's bunk, landing deftly just a foot in front of Blake. "Let's go." Sun grabbed Blake's hand and led her out the dorm almost immediately.

Blake gave out a quick yelp as she was caught off guard, but she was able to keep pace with Sun as he ran down the hall. Despite Blake keeping up with Sun, and even overtaking him slightly, Sun did not let go of her hand. She didn't mind at all, and even enjoyed holding hands with the big buffoon, but why he didn't let go, Blake could not tell.

As they neared the main courtyard, Blake tugged Sun along behind her and took a quick right. "I've got an idea." She said, leading him towards the outskirts of the forest bordering the school grounds. As they reached it, she let go of his hand and leapt into the canopy, turning to face him. "Try and keep up!" she said, and quickly disappeared further into the forest.

"Really? Trees? The least you can do is make it hard for me." Sun shouted back as he leapt up to follow her. He quickly caught up to her and stayed about two feet behind her for the extent of their run. Just as the trees started to part in front of them, Sun tackled Blake, tumbling out into the clearing with her. He landed on his back in a particularly soft patch of grass, near the center of the clearing. Sun had shifted his weight so Blake landed on top of him, laughing at the surprised look on her face.

Blake swiftly punched him in the arm. "What was that for?" she asked, only slightly mad at him.

"Fun, mostly." Sun was beaming again, which made Blake smile.

"Jerk." Blake gave him another light smack.

"What can I say? You're fun when taken out of your shell." Sun said, lightly poking at his friend.

"I quite agree with you there." a voice said from a tree top on the edge of the clearing, behind Blake.

Both Sun and Blake leapt to their feet, weapons drawn, to face whoever startled them. What Blake saw almost frightened her.

"Hello, Blake. Good to see you again." Adam Taurus dropped from the tree limb he was standing on and into the clearing, Wilt and Blush drawn.

**Author's Note: DUN DUN DUUUUUUN! Yep Adam is in the story now, and he is not too happy (Wilt and Blush being drawn should get that point across). I came up with an idea like this when I started to think of how Blake and Sun would get together, so I've had some time to think. I decided it would be best to throw some drama into the mix, as well as some back story, so next chapter we get deeper into the back story I wrote for Blake.**

**Also, I get REEEEALLY bored at work and write, so these are coming somewhat easily. It's probably not a good thing, me ignoring homework to write these, but oh well.**

**UPDATE 9/1/14: I've got the previous chapter(following Chapter 4 timeline wise) almost ready, but I am likely going to hold onto it as it takes place after the dance, which should be this weeks episode. I'm holding onto it just incase stuff goes down that I want to allude to. I will likely release it Thursday night/Friday morning after I watch the episode and make any necessary tweeks. I'm going to make you sit and stew about Adam until we get to this point in the story (it's not at all because I have no idea what i'm doing with him, really), so have fun speculating.**

**(Don't forget to Rate/Review**** and Follow/Favorite to stay up to date on A Simple Soul. See if you can find all the references/easter eggs!)**


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